The changing nature of conflict in Africa : challenges for the United Nations

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The nature of conflict in Africa has changed from the Cold War to the post-cold Warera. This is evident in the internal and external factors and actors involved within theconflict dynamics. During the Cold War era politics and the quest for control of thestate formed the basis for conflicts in Africa, from anti-colonial wars of independenceand liberation struggles to secessionist attempts. In the post-Cold War era with theloss of external superpower support, this has changed with the growing significanceof identity politics, and conflicts based on the differences of ethnicity, religion and thequest for the control of resources and land, characterised by extreme violence and therise of actors other than the state, within failed and collapsed states. These conflictshave thus presented challenges to the United Nations (UN) in relation to its traditionalmeans of maintaining international peace and security, and the internal dynamics ofthe decision-making processes, political will and accompanying resources andfinancial factors within the organisation. The challenges faced by the UN in Africatherefore lie not only within the nature of conflict and the nature of the African statebut also within the internal constraints inherent within the organisation itself. Theconflicts in Mozambique and Rwanda respectively represent how the nature ofconflict has changed in Africa from the Cold War to the post-Cold War era and bothillustrate the challenges the UN has faced in light of the changing nature of Africanconflict. While Mozambique offers an example of a typical Cold War conflict, basedon the quest for control of the state and exacerbated by superpower support, Rwandarepresents an example of a typical post-Cold War internal conflict based on identitypolitics and extreme violence manifest as genocide. By comparing and contrastingthese two conflicts, and the subsequent involvement of UN peace maintenanceoperations in these conflicts, this thesis offers a comparative study of old and newwars in Africa in order that a better understanding of the nature of conflict in Africacan be reached and to illustrate the challenges faced by the UN in light of thischanging nature of conflict.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University