In this stimulating and carefully researched study, Conteh-Morgan offers a multidimensional look at the political economy of African states. While many books focus on explanations of the processes and outcomes of political transitions, this work demonstrates a deeper understanding of democratization by combining macro and micro issues and actors, and historical and contemporary dynamics, into a theoretical framework that underscores anomalies, dilemmas, and paradoxes in the political transformation of Africa. Offering one of the first detailed and balanced evaluations of democratization, Conteh-Morgan breaks new ground by providing thought provoking insights into political transitions in developing countries. The work will be of interest to scholars in comparative politics, development studies, and African studies.

With the departure of the Soviet and Cubans from Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa no longer comprises a part of the West's core strategic interest. America's experience in Somalia illustrated the folly of addressing with force what was essentially a humanitarian problem derived from the utter failure of the economic development of the third world. The human tragedy in Rwanda highlighted the seemingly interminable demands for external aid. And Liberia has depicted the gruesome realities of human failure in the only African land with at least historic (but non-colonial) ties to the US. This book provides a thorough examination of one dimension of peacekeeping in Africa: ECOMOG'S role in the attempt to bring peace to Liberia and the impact of this operation on the region.

Civil Wars in Africa, edited by Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh, Jr., examines civil conflicts throughout various African countries. They argue that civil wars in Africa are by-products of the contradictions and crises engendered by the post-colonial state-building and nation-building projects in Africa. With few exceptions, the post-colonial states in Africa have failed to build societies that invest in the material well-being of their citizens; protect their political, civil, and other rights; promote accountability, transparency, the rule of law, judicial independence, and the holding of free and fair elections; and promote ethnic pluralism, tolerance, mutual respect, and peaceful co-existence, among others. In addition, the contributors show that the post-colonial states in Africa have been ruled by corrupt and autocratic leaders, who are obsessed with the maintenance of state power as the pathway to ensuring the private accumulation of wealth through sundry illegal means, including bribery, extortion, and theft of public funds. In sum, this volume addresses how the failure of the post-colonial African state to shepherd the process of building democratic societies based on the centrality of human security has led to the erosion of the legitimacy of the state and its custodians. Thus, once the contradictions and crises reached their crescendo, these post-colonial societies than implode into civil wars, even at the micro-level.

The Sino-African Partnership portrays with rigor and clarity the relationship between China and Africa by delving into the geopolitical, geo-economic, and sociocultural dynamics that underlie the extensive and deepening "South-South" cooperation between the two. The analysis highlights China's role in the partnership by underscoring its geo-strategy, multidimensional approach, and the nature of its power projection in a continent of nation-states with differing geo-strategic importance and resource endowments. Supported by a rich texture of recent historical, political, and economic insights and interactions between China and Africa reflecting established knowledge, the book also delves deep into the impact on China of globalization imperatives following the end of the Cold War and its focus on ideological rivalry. Graduate and undergraduate students, China-Africa scholars, and general readers interested in a new perspective on the relationship between the two entities will find this essential and interesting reading. It is a unique and multidimensional examination of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, relationships, and profound development in global politics between two significant developing actors. There are new insights in this study into China's power projection into Africa and the global reactions spawned by its many activities.