Major Flaws in Conflict Prevention Policies towards Africa. The Conceptual Deficits of International Actors’ Approaches and How to Overcome Them

Andreas Mehler () and Hans-Christian Mahnke
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Hans-Christian Mahnke: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen

Economic History from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Current thinking on African conflicts suffers from misinterpretations (oversimplification, lack of focus, lack of conceptual clarity, state- centrism and lack of vision). The paper analyses a variety of the dominant explanations of major international actors and donors, showing how these frequently do not distinguish with sufficient clarity between the ‘root causes’ of a conflict, its aggravating factors and its triggers. Specifically, a correct assessment of conflict prolonging (or sustaining) factors is of vital importance in Africa’s lingering confrontations. Broader approaches (e.g. “structural stability”) offer a better analytical framework than familiar one-dimensional explanations. Moreover, for explaining and dealing with violent conflicts a shift of attention from the nation-state towards the local and sub-regional level is needed.

Keywords: Saharan Africa; Conflict Prevention; Conflict Factors; Root causes; Conflict Prolonging Factors; Escalation Patterns; Peace Order; Structural Stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2005-08-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 42
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0508001

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