Africa in the 21st Century: New Insights into the Problem of Security

Abstract

A sharp increase in geopolitical tensions following the start of a special military operation in Ukraine and the introduction of unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia has reverberated around the planet, and Africa is no exception in this regard. Under the circumstances, old threats to African countries have intensified and new ones have emerged, shaped by a complex interplay of local and international political and economic factors. If left unchecked, these threats may undermine Africa’s economic progress and have a knock-on effect on the continental integration agenda. Suitably, scholarly interest in African security has been and will keep growing as the interplay becomes more complicated. The Centre for Sociological and Political Sciences Studies of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences held the international conference “Between Promise and Peril: African Security in the 21st Century”. The scope of the conference covered such security-related topics in the African context as peacekeeping and counter-insurgency, private military companies and hybrid warfare, nuclear terrorism and peaceful atom, state fragility and neo-patrimonialism. A grave peril is that Africa once again becomes a proxy battlefield for conflicts between great powers. Participants paid special attention to the dynamics between local and foreign factors of destabilization in African countries. A particular focus of presenters was also made on the dilemma of state-building in Africa and its impact on African security. Most participants agreed that Africa’s security is no longer a regional issue but a global one as the geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of the continent is increasing steadily.