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Innovations in ‘African solutions to African problems’: the evolving practice of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Katharina P. Coleman
Katharina P. Coleman*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, 1866 Main Mall, Vancouver, V6 T 1Z1, Canada
*
Email: katharina.coleman@ubc.ca
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Abstract

Three critical trends in the evolving practice of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa have undermined the usefulness of the common conceptual dichotomy between regional peacekeeping and UN/global peacekeeping. First, sub-Saharan African states have distanced themselves from long-term autonomous regional peacekeeping, and currently favour explicitly interim missions that are a prelude rather than an alternative to UN peacekeeping. Second, the analytically clear line between regional peacekeeping and the separate sub-Saharan African tradition of solidarity deployments (i.e. military support of embattled governments) has in practice become blurred, and the regional vs global peacekeeping dichotomy not only fails to acknowledge this trend but helps to obscure it. Finally, sub-Saharan African states are increasingly addressing regional conflicts by participating in UN operations deployed in the region. UN peacekeeping has thus emerged as a preferred form of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 517 - 545
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

Many thanks to Brian Job, Allen Sens and two anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Modern African Studies for their insightful comments on this article.

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