Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Conflict Resolution in Africa

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Contemporary Issues in African Society

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities ((AHAM))

  • 479 Accesses

Abstract

Chapter 7 examines the state of conflict resolution on the African Continent. It begins by summarizing the major models of conflict resolution that have been used to help terminate civil wars and undertake post-conflict peacebuilding on the continent. The chapter argues that while there has been some successes in the termination of civil wars, the post-conflict peacebuilding projects in the continent’s war-affected states has not addressed the underlying causes of the civil conflict and set these societies on the pathway to durable peace‚ and human centered democracy and development. The chapter places the blame for this shortcoming at the doorstep of the hegemonic liberal peacebuilding model that has been imposed by the suzerains of the global system led by the United States on post-conflict African states. Alternatively‚ the chapter suggests that the precondition for addressing the conflict that underpins the continent’s various civil wars is the democratic reconstitution of the state.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AFP. 2016. Africa in the Dock at the ICC. New Vision. October 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adebajo, Adekeye. 2002. Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ake, Claude. 1996. Democracy and Development in Africa. Washington, D.C: The Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, Guy. 2007. Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Assefa, Hizkias. 1996. Peacemaking and Democratization in Africa. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bangura, Abdul Karim. 2008. Africa Peace Paradigms. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bariagaber, Assefaw. 2006. Conflict and the Refugee Experience. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, Michael. 2006. Building a Republican Peace: Stabilizing States After War. International Security 30 (4): 87–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, R.H. 2002. Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross Cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, Alex, Paul Williams, and Staurt Griffin. 2004. Understanding Peacekeeping. 1st ed. London: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binningsbo, Helga Malmin, and Kendra Dupuy. 2009. Power Sharing and the Civil War in Sierra Leone. Paper presented at the Aegis Conference, October 1–2, in Hamburg, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowcott, Owen. 2016. Congo Politician Guilty in First ICC Trial to Focus on Rape as War Crime. The Guardian. London. March 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Call, Charles, and Susan Cook. 2003. Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. Global Governance 9: 135–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cortright, David. 2008. Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Curran, David, and Tom Woodhouse. 2007. Cosmopolitan Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: What can Africa Contribute?. International Affairs 83 (6): 1055–1070.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dana, Shahram. 2014. The Sentencing Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 42 (3): 617–686.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darby, John, and Roger Mac Ginty (eds.). 2008. Contemporary Peacemaking, 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Waal, Alex. 2006. Darfur: A Short History of a Long War. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, Kirsten. 2007. Demanding Accountability: Judgment and Punishment in Uganda’s Restorative Mechanisms. Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium, March 16, in Dalhousie University, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, Diana. 2010. From Pacification to Peacebuilding. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghali, Butros-Butros. 1995. An Agenda for Peace. New York: United Nations Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gounden, Vasu. 2002. Managing and Resolving African Conflicts: A Critical Review Paper. Ethiopia: Addis Ababa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guldimann, Tim. 2010. Peacekeeping Under Stain: Coping With Evolving Contradictions?. Peace and Conflict Review 4 (2): 68–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartzell, Caroline, and Matthew Hoddie. 2003. Institutionalizing Peace: Power Sharing and Post-Cold War Conflict. American Journal of Political Science 47 (2): 318–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hegre, Havard. 2004. The Duration and Termination of Civil Wars. Journal of Peace Research 41 (3): 243–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, Michael. 1971. Studies in War and Peace. New York: Viking Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 2008. Fact Sheet No. 1. Arusha, Tanzania: ICTR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isenhart, Myra Warren, and Michael Spangle. 2000. Collaborative Approaches to Resolving Conflicts. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keltner, John. 1987. Mediation: Toward a Civilized System of Dispute Resolution. Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kieh, George Klay. 1993. Resolving Africa’s Conflicts. Peace Review 5 (4): 447–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kieh, George Klay. 2009. The United Nation’s Peace Observation Mission and the First Liberian Civil War. Peace Studies Journal 2 (1): 45–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotzo, Dirk. 2002. Issues in Conflict Resolution. African Journal on Conflict Resolution 2 (2): 77–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreutz, Joakim. 2010. How and When Armed Conflicts End: Introducing the UCDP Conflict Termination Dataset. Journal of Peace Research 47 (2): 243–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurtenbach, Sabine. 2007. Why is Liberal Peacebuilding So Difficult? Some Lessons from Central America. GIGA Working Papers No. 59, German Institute of Global and Area Studies at Hamburg, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederach, John Paul. 1995. Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederach, John Paul. 2005. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Licklider, Roy (ed.). 1993. Stopping the Killings: How Civil War Ends. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipson, Michael. 2007. A ‘Garbage Can Model’ of UN Peacekeeping. Global Governance 13 (1): 79–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, Terrence. 2002. Postconflict Elections: War Termination, Democratization, and Demilitarizing Politics. Working Paper No. 20, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University at Fairfax, VA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malan, Mark. 1998. Peacekeeping in Africa: Trends and Responses. ISS Occasional Paper No. 31, Institute for Security Studies at Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, Roy, and Simon Massey. 1998. The OAU’s Interventions in Chad: Mission Impossible or Mission Evaded?. International Peacekeeping 5 (1): 46–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mays, Terry. 2002. Africa’s First Peacekeeping Operation: The OAU in Chad, 1981–1982. Westport, CT: Praeger Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGreal, Chris. 2008. Uganda Defies War Crimes Court Over Indictments. Guardian (United Kingdom). March 12, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muiu, Mueni. 2007. “Peace-building and Conflict Resolution”. In Stakes in Africa-U.S. Relations: Proposals for an Equitable Partnership, eds. Abdul Karim Bangura et al., 41–60. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natsios, Andrew. 2008. Beyond Darfur: Sudan’s Slide Toward Civil War. Foreign Affairs 87 (3): 77–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, Edward, and Oliver Richmond. 2006. Peace building and Spoilers. Conflict, Security and Development 6 (1): 101–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nsia-Pepra, Kofi. 2009. Robust Peacekeeping? Confronting the Failures of Traditional Peacekeeping in Preventing Human Rights Violations. Paper presented at the 50th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, February 15, in New York City, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyanduga, Bohame Tom. 2004. The Challenge of Internal Displacement in Africa. Forced Migration Review 21: 58–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padden, Emily. 2010. Beyond Creed, Greed and Booty: Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute 80 (2): 322–331.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsbotham, Oliver, Tom Woodhouse, and Hugh Miall. 2011. Contemporary Conflict Resolution: The Prevention, Management and Transformation of Deadly Conflicts. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sessay, Max. 1996. Civil War and Collective Intervention in Liberia. Review of African Political Economy 23 (67): 35–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spangler, Brand. 2005. Settlement, Resolution, Management, and Transformation: An Explanation of Terms. In Beyond Intractability, eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Boulder, CO: Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado at Boulder. www.beyondintractability.org/essay/development_conflict_theory. Accessed on 24 May 2016.

  • Special Court for Sierra Leone. 2008. Documents and Cases. Freetown, Sierra Leone: Special Court for Sierra Leone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriram, Chandra Lekha. 2007. Liberal Peacebuilding and Strategies of Transitional Justice. Global Society 21 (4): 579–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stedman, Stephen John. 2000. Spoiler Problems in Peace Process. In International Conflict Resolution after the Cold War, eds. Paul Stern, and Daniel Druckman, 178–218. Washington, D.C.: National Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stedman, Stephen John, Donald Rottchild, and Elizabeth Cousens (eds.). 2002. Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thom, William. 1999. Congo-Zaire’s 1996–1997 Civil War in the Context of Evolving Patterns of Military Conflict in Africa in the Era of Independence. Journal of Conflict Studies 19 (2). www.lib.unb.ca. Accessed on 25 May 2016.

  • United Nations Security Council. 1994. Resolution 955 on the Establishment of An International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Its Statute. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, Barbara. 1999. Designing Transitions from Civil War. In Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, ed. Barbara Walter, and Jack Synder, 38–72. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, Barbara. 2001. Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, Thomas George, David Forsythe, Roger Coates, and Kelly-Kate Pease. 2016. The United Nations and Changing World Politics. 8th ed. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yawanajah, Nita‚ and Julian Ouellet. 2003. Peace Agreements. In Beyond Intractability, eds. Guy Burgess, and Heidi Burgess. Boulder, CO: Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado at Boulder. www.beyondintractability.org/essay/developmentconflicttheory. Accessed 25 May 2016.

  • Zartman, I William.1999. Introduction: African Traditional Conflict Medicines. In Traditional Cures for Modern Conflicts: African Conflict “Medicine”, ed. I William Zartman, 1–14. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, USA

    George Klay Kieh Jr.

Authors
  1. George Klay Kieh Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia, USA

    George Klay Kieh, Jr.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kieh, G.K. (2018). Conflict Resolution in Africa. In: Kieh, Jr., G. (eds) Contemporary Issues in African Society. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49772-3_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation