Abstract
Nowhere on the African continent is t he gap between aspiration and achievement more evident than in the repeated and largely ineffectual attempts of regional organizations to shore up the fragility of Central African states in the face of continuing threats to their stability. No other part on the continent contains states that claim membership in so many subregional organizations and with so few tangible results.
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Notes
Christopher Clapham, “Boundaries and States in the New African Order,” in Daniel C. Bach (ed.), Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and Disintegration (Bloomington and Oxford: Indiana University Press and James Currey, 1999), p. 65.
Jean-François Bayart, “Africa and the World: A History of Extraversion,” African Affairs 99, no. 395 (2000), 22.
Chris Dietrich, The Commercialization of Military Deployment in Africa, unpublished manuscript, January 26, 2001, p. 3.
Terrence Lyons, “Can Neighbors Help? Regional Actors and African Conflict Management,” in Francis Deng and Terrence Lyons (eds.), African Reckoning: A Quest for Good Governance (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998), p. 69. Colin McCarthy makes a similar argument—“It is difficult to envisage the successful integration of weak states; the creation of integration arrangements cannot serve as a substitute for poor or weak national governance”—in “Regional Integration,” in Stephen Ellis (ed.), Africa Now: People, Policies, Institutions (London: Currey, 1996), p. 220.
Crawford Young, The Postcolonial State in Africa: Fifty Years of Independence, 1960–2010 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), pp. 55–62.
See discussion by Peter J. Schraeder, “Belgium, France, and the United States,” in Gilbert M. Khadiagala (ed.), Security Dynamics in Africa’s Great Lakes Region (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006), pp. 171–2.
Namely, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), and the March 23 Movement (M23). A major exception to such Tutsi-led movements was the so-called Tous pour le Développement (TPD), founded by a Congolese Hutu, Eugene Serufuli, in 1998, whose members were largely recruited among the Hutu community indigenous to the Kivu provinces, but which was Rwanda-aligned. For a fuller discussion, see René Lemarchand, The Dynamics of Violence in Africa (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), p. 27.
William Reno, “Mafiya Troubles, Warlord Crises,” in Mark Beissinger and Crawford Young (eds.), Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2002), pp. 107–7.
Daniel Bach, “The Dilemmas of Regionalization,” in Adekeye Adebajo and Ismail Rashid (eds.), West Africa’s Security Challenges: Building Peace in a Troubled Sub Region (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004), p. 83.
René Lemarchand, Rapport de Mission sur la Prévention des Conflicts en Afrique Centrale, 29 Septembre–15 Novembre 2003 (Brussels: European Commission, Europe/Aid Cooperation Office, 2003).
Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), “Towards a New Pax Africana: Making, Keeping, and Building Peace in Post-Cold War Africa,” Stellenbosch, South Africa, May 2014, http://www.ccr.org.za/images/pdfs/V46-Pax%20Africana%20 Report%20Web.pdf (accessed October 1, 2014), p. 21.
Nelson Cosme, Lettre du Secrétaire Général au Délégue de la Commission Européenne de Libreville (Gabon), January 19, 2004. In a radically different commentary, a member of the French military delegation to the EU raised more pertinent issues: “Is there a real political will to strengthen peace in the region? What is one to make of the attitude of Rwanda and Burundi towards RDC, which constitutes an aggression as defined by the Mutual Assistance Pact[?] As for the Force Multinationale d’Afrique Centrale (FOMAC), which ought to be the armed wing of the COPAX, where is it to be found? CEEAC in our opinion is not a sufficiently coherent entity to serve as a useful tool to prevent conflict and settle crises” (author’s translation). Author’s personal files.
Morten Bøås, Randi Lotsberg, and Jean-Luc Ndizeye, The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)—Review of Norwegian Support to the ICGLR Secretariat, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) report no. 17/2009, June 2009, p. 23.
S. K. B. Asante, The Strategy of Regional Integration in Africa (Accra: Friedrich Ebert, 1996), p. 35.
Christopher Clapham, “Boundaries and States in the New African Order,” in Daniel C. Bach (ed.), Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and Disintegration (Bloomington and Oxford: Indiana University Press and James Currey, 1999), p. 65.
François Kabuya Kalata and Tshiunza Mbiye, “Communautés Économiques Régionales: Quelles Stratégies d’Intégration en RDC?,” L’Afrique des Grands Lacs, Annuaire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009–10), pp. 336, 338.
Jean-François Bayart, “Africa and the World: A History of Extraversion,” African Affairs 99, no. 395 (2000), 22.
Chris Dietrich, The Commercialization of Military Deployment in Africa, unpublished manuscript, January 26, 2001, p. 3.
Terrence Lyons, “Can Neighbors Help? Regional Actors and African Conflict Management,” in Francis Deng and Terrence Lyons (eds.), African Reckoning: A Quest for Good Governance (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998), p. 69.
Colin McCarthy makes a similar argument—“It is difficult to envisage the successful integration of weak states; the creation of integration arrangements cannot serve as a substitute for poor or weak national governance”—in “Regional Integration,” in Stephen Ellis (ed.), Africa Now: People, Policies, Institutions (London: Currey, 1996), p. 220.
Crawford Young, The Postcolonial State in Africa: Fifty Years of Independence, 1960–2010 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), pp. 55–62.
World Bank, “The World Bank’s Rwanda Economic Update: Seizing the Opportunities for Growth with a Special Focus on Harnessing the Demographic Dividend,” January 29, 2014, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2014/01/29/the-world-banks-rwanda-economic-update-seizing-theopportunities-for-growth-with-a-special-focus-on-harnessing-the-demographicdividend (accessed August 26, 2014).
See discussion by Peter J. Schraeder, “Belgium, France, and the United States,” in Gilbert M. Khadiagala (ed.), Security Dynamics in Africa’s Great Lakes Region (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006), pp. 171–2.
Namely, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), and the March 23 Movement (M23). A major exception to such Tutsi-led movements was the so-called Tous pour le Développement (TPD), founded by a Congolese Hutu, Eugene Serufuli, in 1998, whose members were largely recruited among the Hutu community indigenous to the Kivu provinces, but which was Rwanda-aligned. For a fuller discussion, see René Lemarchand, The Dynamics of Violence in Africa (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), p. 27.
William Reno, “Mafiya Troubles, Warlord Crises,” in Mark Beissinger and Crawford Young (eds.), Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2002), pp. 107–7.
Daniel Bach, “The Dilemmas of Regionalization,” in Adekeye Adebajo and Ismail Rashid (eds.), West Africa’s Security Challenges: Building Peace in a Troubled SubRegion (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004), p. 83.
René Lemarchand, Rapport de Mission sur la Prévention des Conflicts en Afrique Centrale, 29 Septembre–15 Novembre 2003 (Brussels: European Commission, Europe/Aid Cooperation Office, 2003).
Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), “Towards a New Pax Africana: Making, Keeping, and Building Peace in Post-Cold War Africa,” Stellenbosch, South Africa, May 2014, http://www.ccr.org.za/images/pdfs/V46-Pax%20Africana%20 Report%20Web.pdf (accessed October 1, 2014), p. 21.
On the largely forgotten episode in the history of little-known São Tomé and Príncipe, see Gerhard Seibert, “Coup d’État in São Tomé e Príncipe: Domestic Causes, the Role of Oil, and Former ‘Buffalo’ Battalion Soldiers,” Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Occasional Paper, October 10, 2003, http://issafrica.org/AF/current/stomeoct03.pdf (accessed April 1, 2015).
Nelson Cosme, Lettre du Secrétaire Général au Délégue de la Commission Européenne de Libreville (Gabon), January 19, 2004. In a radically different commentary, a member of the French military delegation to the EU raised more pertinent issues: “Is there a real political will to strengthen peace in the region? What is one to make of the attitude of Rwanda and Burundi towards RDC, which constitutes an aggression as defined by the Mutual Assistance Pact[?] As for the Force Multinationale d’Afrique Centrale (FOMAC), which ought to be the armed wing of the COPAX, where is it to be found? CEEAC in our opinion is not a sufficiently coherent entity to serve as a useful tool to prevent conflict and settle crises” (author’s translation). Author’s personal files.
Morten Bøås, Randi Lotsberg, and Jean-Luc Ndizeye, The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)—Review of Norwegian Support to the ICGLR Secretariat, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) report no. 17/2009, June 2009, p. 23.
S. K. B. Asante, The Strategy of Regional Integration in Africa (Accra: Friedrich Ebert, 1996), p. 35.
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Lemarchand, R. (2016). Region-Building in Central Africa. In: Levine, D.H., Nagar, D. (eds) Region-Building in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137586117_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137586117_14
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