Paul Jackson

Warlords as alternative forms of Governance

Warlord is a label that currently besets us on all fronts. The 2001–2002 military action in Afghanistan is illustrative of the Wests ambivalent view of armed factions in the developing world in general. The demonisation of the Taliban and the elevation of the former ‘warlords’ of the opposition to the rather more grandiose sounding ‘Northern Alliance’, at once formalising the hitherto informal nature of the warlord system, implies that the term ‘warlord’ is synonymous with anarchy, violence and a breakdown in civilised values. ‘Warlord’ has become an ugly, detrimental expression, evoking brutality, racketeering and terrorism. Analysts referring to violence across developing countries routinely refer to ‘new wars’ and ‘post-modern’ conflict, and yet the language used to describe these phenomena is usually pre-modern (medievalism, baronial rule, new feudalism). This article outlines some examples of historical warlords and draws out the common issues. In particular it emphasises the fact that warlords have been present for centuries and have periodically emerged whenever centralised political-military control has broken down. All that has changed through history is the technology available to each generation and the relative economic base. The article concludes with a series of implications for policy-makers currently considering intervention in warlord-based economies.

Security Sector Reform and State Building

Abstract This article argues that there is a close link between security sector reform (ssr) and state building. Focusing on UK approaches to state building and ssr, it argues that these are an extension of liberal models containing a number of assumptions about the nature of states and how they should be constructed and that any analysis of ssr approaches needs to be seen within a broader framework of the international community, which tends to see the replacement of ‘dysfunctional’ societies as desirable both for the people of those states and for the international community. As a result, state building has largely been carried out as a ‘technical-administrative’ exercise focusing on the technicalities of constructing and running organisations rather than on the politics of creating states, leading to a lack of overall political coherence in terms of where ssr is, or should be, going and of what kinds of state are being constructed. Politics is frequently cited by practitioners as representing a set of obstacles to be overcome to achieve ssr rather than a set of assumptions about actually doing it. The effect of development and security policies working closely together in insecure environments is an overarching emphasis on security at the expense of the harder, more long-term process of development.

Ten Challenges for Introducing Web-Supported Learning to Overseas Students in the Social sciences

This article documents the experiences of a group of MBA students undertaking one module within the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham. At a university level, teachers are being asked to adopt one particular piece of commercially available educational software; WebCT. As a result, the learning experience was equally important for the university, the lecturer and the students themselves. The class itself consisted of a group of around 35 overseas post-experience students with a wide variety of insight and experience. The article uses a literature set that is different from ‘normal’ evaluation approaches, instead drawing on the experience of computer-supported cooperative work analysts to provide a different insight into the use of the Internet in educational support.

The March of the Lord's Resistance Army: Greed or Grievance in Northern Uganda

This article addresses the form and nature of an insurgency in Northern Uganda that has been active since the mid-1980s. The insurgency movement itself grew out of an internal breakdown in security lasting over several years, during which ethnicity played a critical part in defining access to power and resources within Uganda. The recent explosion of literature relating to conflict inside Sub-Saharan Africa outlines several different analytical approaches to violence. One of the most recent and influential has been that of examining greed rather than grievance as the main driver behind conflict. This articl looks at the evolution of warfare in Northern Uganda over 15 years and puts the argument that greed and grievance are not mutually exclusive in this situation and it is the interaction between the two that provides the impetus for continued violence.

State-building through security sector reform: the UK intervention in Sierra Leone

UK support to the reconstruction of the Sierra Leonean state has been widely held up as an example of successful state-building with the development of basic capacity and trust in public institutions, particularly security. This article examines security sector reform (SSR) in Sierra Leone, how Sierra Leone affected SSR and what implications that has for international interventions. Despite being hailed as a success, the sustainability of a state-building effort driven by concepts of the liberal state, a polity form that never existed in Sierra Leone, is in question. Unrealistic expectations of progress driven by planning imperatives of development agencies remain a key issue and obstacle to sustainability.

Legacy of Bitterness: Insurgency in North West Rwanda

The insurgency in North West Rwanda is a good example of a small scale conflict that provides a first step into the more complex world of regional instability in central Africa. Following the genocide of 1994, genocidaires and ex-military personnel fled to what was then Zaire and established a network of anti-Tutsi bases. Linking up with local groups in Eastern Zaire, these insurgents, usually known as ‘infiltrators’ have carried out a low-intensity but consistent insurgency campaign in Rwanda. u20031. To avoid numerous references to the ‘former Zaire’, the term Zaire is used before May 1997. The constant barrage of propaganda aimed at the local population, a technique pioneered during the 1994 genocide, has led to a general, manufactured support for the insurgency. In particular, those people returning from Zaire have been fed a constant diet of anti-Tutsi and Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) propaganda, making it easier to act against these groups. Even within the local government and other official bodies, there are widespread Hutu sympathies that have led to additional aid reaching the insurgents. The particular strain of ethnic violence has led to an insurgency in which civilian villages are as likely to be attacked as RPA military installations. More surprising, given the nature of the insurgency, Hutus themselves have been targets. Initially, moderate Hutus were singled out as examples, but increasingly indiscriminate killings have been aiming to force all Hutus to take sides. The insurgents have deliberately polarised large parts of Rwanda and this has profound implications for conflict resolution. In particular, supplementing the military campaign with political social campaigns, at least partly to combat the mythology of grievance among the Hutus, and tackling the conflict as part of a supra-national conflict that goes beyond ‘national’ borders.

New rôles of government in supporting manufacturing: the capabilities of support agencies in Ghana and Zimbabwe

This study examines the roles and capabilities of executive agencies in providing support services to manufacturing in Ghana and Zimbabwe. It asserts that the new roles of government during and after adjustment have not been clearly defined and are in fact more complex than running state-owned productive enterprises. The basic shift is said to be from direct provision of goods and services to the provision of an enabling environment through support in areas such as training, information, finance, export and investment promotion and technology. Economic development is stimulated when there is a harmonious relationship between entrepreneurs and their institutional environment, much of which is provided by the state. This article concentrates upon the role of meso-level agencies in changing incentives faced by entrepreneurs and shifting them out of unproductive activity and into productive entrepreneurship, and outlines some of the preliminary results from related research. There are several factors which influence the capabilities of agencies providing these services. Essentially they may be divided into internal and external factors. This allows the analysis to consider not only budgeting and incentive systems but also the impact of external pressures experienced by any given agency. Copyright

‘Negotiating with Ghosts’: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

Abstract This article outlines the current situation with regard to the Lords Resistance Army and the possibilities for peace in Northern Uganda. It seeks to add to the discourse on rethinking Africas international relations in the context of a specific conflict and with regard to a specific tool of the international community: the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its involvement in issuing warrants for insurgency leaders in October 2005. The article discusses the role of traditional justice systems and the ICC in ending the war, concluding that justice in Northern Uganda requires an end to the false dichotomy of ‘traditional’ and ICC approaches and that the two must complement each other in order to address the different groups within the LRA and the Acholi population.

Are Africa's Wars Part of a Fourth Generation of Warfare?

This paper examines the relevance of the ideas encompassed by Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) in the context of warfare in Africa. 4GW theorists have largely focused on contemporary conflicts where American or NATO forces are deployed, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq. The exclusion of Africa from this debate represents a strategic danger, limiting the body of theory that American strategic planners can draw on when the United States and its allies become involved, as it currently is in Somalia, the Mahgreb, and elsewhere. This essay argues that whilst there are serious problems with the application of such a Western-centric approach to a linear, chronological development of warfare, there are a number of elements within the 4GW approach that are helpful in describing contemporary conflict in Africa. Application of 4GW to Africa shows that African patterns of warfare include both 4GW-type features and pre-colonial patterns. The emphasis on decentralised, non-formal networked conflict within 4GW lends itself to the development of new approaches to conflicts across Africa, which is also tied into globalised economic systems. This approach may establish common ground for synergies between military strategy and post-conflict reconstruction.

The Civil War Roots of Military Domination in Zimbabwe: The Integration Process Following the Rhodesian War and the Road to ZANLA Dominance

This article addresses the issue of what happens after a civil war ends. In particular it traces the development of political authoritarianism from an initial multiparty democracy and military integration following a civil war to one-party control and the breakdown of civil security following the rise of an alternative opposition. The post-conflict situation within Zimbabwe shows clearly how one faction was able to use their position to dismantle and incorporate opposition groups into a one-party state, despite considerable violence between former allies over seven years. A narrative history of the process and its aftermath provides a valuable insight into how these processes developed and the implications of actions taken during an integration process itself for subsequent political development.