Governance has become an important concept in the politics of African development. It is therefore a crucial concept for social science analyses focusing on Africa. In public discourse Africa's future is being shaped by a combination of external interventions backed by African elites who cooperate with the donors, whose understanding of the importance of 'good governance' they share. This groundbreaking book disentangles the analytical aspects of governance from its political and normative connotations. The 'African exception' - the difference in 'development' between Africa and other regions of the South - can be understood by analysis focusing upon the specific forms of governance played out in politics and economics. The perspective of neo-patrimonialism is crucial but not sufficient here. The first section of the book explores African governance in two functional spheres: the political realm and the economic. Section two looks at new areas of governance in Africa: violent social spaces, HIV/AIDS and entrepreneurial urban governance.

This book addresses a major gap in the longstanding research on regional organisations: how do their finances work and what do they reveal about the region-building process? It brings together an empirically rich collection of chapters written by experts of regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Based on the insights on thirteen regional organisations as well as two chapters dedicated to the influence of external funders, the editors develop typologies to cluster regional organisations according to their financial characteristics: the size of budgets, the sources of funding and the criteria to calculate contributions. Through analysing the process of budgeting and resourcing, the book sheds light on the different nature and functioning of these organisations existing outside of the Global North and puts a specific emphasis on regional organisations in the area of security in Africa and the Global South. It provides explanations to why members pay or do not pay and how budgeting works, and it deals with data availability, the role of donors, overlapping regionalism, cultural transfers between regional organisations and the impact on regional actorness. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of African studies and politics, the Global South, the finances of international organisations, comparative regionalism, international political economy and international relations.

Towards an African Peace and Security Regime: Continental embeddedness, transnational linkages, strategic relevance provides an informed and critical reflection on the adequacy of the emerging African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to the medium- and long-term challenges and opportunities of conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. Complementary to the editors' Africa's New Peace and Security Architecture: Implementing norms, institutionalising solutions (Ashgate 2010), this volume revolves around three main areas of focus: the continental 'embeddedness' of norms, values and processes required for the gradual coming into shape of the African peace and security regime; its transnational linkages as well as the wider collective security environment; and the empirical analysis of the connections between the continental level and the regional economic communities with case-studies on ECOWAS, SADC and COMESA.

This volume offers an informed and critical analysis of the operationalization and institutionalization of the peace and security architecture by the African Union and Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs). In creating this architecture, the African Union and the RECs tread new ground with potentially significant consequences to the lives and livelihoods of millions of Africans who are affected by war and armed conflict. In-depth, critical chapters inform, clarify and provide key points for reflection on the architecture as a whole as well as on each of the structures currently under implementation. The volume examines the institutions that will carry the mandate forward, raises pertinent research questions for the successful operationalization of the architecture and debates the medium and long-term challenges to implementation. Students and researchers of African approaches to peace building, conflict resolution and regional security will benefit from the deep and critical engagement of issues covered in this volume by world renowned scholars and practitioners.

This volume offers an informed and critical analysis of the operationalization and institutionalization of the peace and security architecture by the African Union and Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs). In creating this architecture, the African Union and the RECs tread new ground with potentially significant consequences to the lives and livelihoods of millions of Africans who are affected by war and armed conflict. In-depth, critical chapters inform, clarify and provide key points for reflection on the architecture as a whole as well as on each of the structures currently under implementation. The volume examines the institutions that will carry the mandate forward, raises pertinent research questions for the successful operationalization of the architecture and debates the medium and long-term challenges to implementation. Students and researchers of African approaches to peace building, conflict resolution and regional security will benefit from the deep and critical engagement of issues covered in this volume by world renowned scholars and practitioners.

An important new discussion of Africa's place in the international system.

This volume discusses Africa's place in the international system, examining the way in which the Westphalian system, in light of the impact of globalization and transnational networks, continues to play a major role in the structuring of Africa's international relations.
The book provides a solid empirical analysis of key global players in Africa - France, the UK, the US, Japan, Germany, the EU and the UN - and of their policies towards the region. In the context of the 'war against terrorism', African political stability becomes a consideration of increasing importance. By analyzing the relevance of the states in the North, this book challenges conventional wisdom in recent international relations thinking. It applies the concept of an 'international policy community' to bridge the gap between the 'domestic' and the 'international', explaining why Africa retains a role in global politics out of any proportion to its economic weight.

This edited volume approaches regionalism as one potential pattern in a changing global order. Since the end of the Cold War, different forms of territorialization have emerged and we are confronted with an increasing number and variety of actors that are establishing regional projects. This volume offers an innovative contribution to the study of this new complexity by exploring constellations of regional actors, spatial scales and imaginations beyond state-centred perspectives as well as on multiple, often overlapping levels. The chapters analyse the emergence, trajectories and outcomes of regionalisms from the perspective of the Global South, specifically concentrating on regional projects in Latin America and Africa, but also in the Asia-Pacific. They attempt to identify the specific conditions and junctures of different forms of region-making in their external (global) and internal (local/national) dimensions. The volume also places special emphasis on interactions, spatial entanglements and comparisons between regionalisms in different parts of the world. By expanding beyond the perspective of North-South transfers, this book seeks to better understand the dynamics and diversity of interregional interactions. This volume will appeal to scholars of global studies, international political economy, international relations, human geography, and development studies, as well as area studies specialists who focus on Latin America and Africa.

This volume discusses Africa's place in the international system, examining the way in which the Westphalian system, in light of the impact of globalization and transnational networks, continues to play a major role in the structuring of Africa's international relations.
The book provides a solid empirical analysis of key global players in Africa - France, the UK, the US, Japan, Germany, the EU and the UN - and of their policies towards the region. In the context of the 'war against terrorism', African political stability becomes a consideration of increasing importance. By analyzing the relevance of the states in the North, this book challenges conventional wisdom in recent international relations thinking. It applies the concept of an 'international policy community' to bridge the gap between the 'domestic' and the 'international', explaining why Africa retains a role in global politics out of any proportion to its economic weight.
"Africa and the North "will interest students and scholars of international relations and African Politics.

Governance has become an important concept in the politics of African development. It is therefore a crucial concept for social science analyses focusing on Africa. In public discourse Africa's future is being shaped by a combination of external interventions backed by African elites who cooperate with the donors, whose understanding of the importance of 'good governance' they share. This groundbreaking book disentangles the analytical aspects of governance from its political and normative connotations. The 'African exception' - the difference in 'development' between Africa and other regions of the South - can be understood by analysis focusing upon the specific forms of governance played out in politics and economics. The perspective of neo-patrimonialism is crucial but not sufficient here. The first section of the book explores African governance in two functional spheres: the political realm and the economic. Section two looks at new areas of governance in Africa: violent social spaces, HIV/AIDS and entrepreneurial urban governance.

This book uses extractive industry projects in Africa to explore how political authority and the nation-state are reconfigured at the intersection of national political contestations and global, transnational capital. Instead of focusing on technological zones and the new social assemblages at the actual sites of construction or mineral extraction, the authors use extractive industry projects as a topical lens to investigate contemporary processes of state-making at the state-corporation nexus. Throughout the book, the authors seek to understand how public political actors and private actors of liberal capitalism negotiate and redefine notions and practices of sovereignty by setting legal, regulatory and fiscal standards. Rather than looking at resource governance from a normative perspective, the authors look at how these negotiations are shaped by and reshape the self-conception of various national and transnational actors, and how these jointly redefine the role of the state in managing these processes for the 'greater good'. Extractive Industries and Changing State Dynamics in Africa will be useful for researchers, upper-level students and policy-makers who are interested in new articulations of state-making and politics in Africa.

This edited volume approaches regionalism as one potential pattern in a changing global order. Since the end of the Cold War, different forms of territorialization have emerged and we are confronted with an increasing number and variety of actors that are establishing regional projects. This volume offers an innovative contribution to the study of this new complexity by exploring constellations of regional actors, spatial scales and imaginations beyond state-centred perspectives as well as on multiple, often overlapping levels. The chapters analyse the emergence, trajectories and outcomes of regionalisms from the perspective of the Global South, specifically concentrating on regional projects in Latin America and Africa, but also in the Asia-Pacific. They attempt to identify the specific conditions and junctures of different forms of region-making in their external (global) and internal (local/national) dimensions. The volume also places special emphasis on interactions, spatial entanglements and comparisons between regionalisms in different parts of the world. By expanding beyond the perspective of North-South transfers, this book seeks to better understand the dynamics and diversity of interregional interactions. This volume will appeal to scholars of global studies, international political economy, international relations, human geography, and development studies, as well as area studies specialists who focus on Latin America and Africa.

This book addresses a major gap in the longstanding research on regional organisations: how do their finances work and what do they reveal about the region-building process? It brings together an empirically rich collection of chapters written by experts of regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Based on the insights on thirteen regional organisations as well as two chapters dedicated to the influence of external funders, the editors develop typologies to cluster regional organisations according to their financial characteristics: the size of budgets, the sources of funding and the criteria to calculate contributions. Through analysing the process of budgeting and resourcing, the book sheds light on the different nature and functioning of these organisations existing outside of the Global North and puts a specific emphasis on regional organisations in the area of security in Africa and the Global South. It provides explanations to why members pay or do not pay and how budgeting works, and it deals with data availability, the role of donors, overlapping regionalism, cultural transfers between regional organisations and the impact on regional actorness. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of African studies and politics, the Global South, the finances of international organisations, comparative regionalism, international political economy and international relations.

This book uses extractive industry projects in Africa to explore how political authority and the nation-state are reconfigured at the intersection of national political contestations and global, transnational capital. Instead of focusing on technological zones and the new social assemblages at the actual sites of construction or mineral extraction, the authors use extractive industry projects as a topical lens to investigate contemporary processes of state-making at the state-corporation nexus. Throughout the book, the authors seek to understand how public political actors and private actors of liberal capitalism negotiate and redefine notions and practices of sovereignty by setting legal, regulatory and fiscal standards. Rather than looking at resource governance from a normative perspective, the authors look at how these negotiations are shaped by and reshape the self-conception of various national and transnational actors, and how these jointly redefine the role of the state in managing these processes for the 'greater good'. Extractive Industries and Changing State Dynamics in Africa will be useful for researchers, upper-level students and policy-makers who are interested in new articulations of state-making and politics in Africa.