Research Analysis Archive​

Publications 2016

Dr. Shilaho, W K

1. Shilaho, W K 2016 ‘The Paradox of Kenya’s Constitutional Reform Process: What Future for Constitutionalism? In Journal for Contemporary History 41(2). Pp 184-207.
2. Shilaho, W. 2016. ‘Challenges of Localising Governance in Kenya: Devolution’ in Journal of Public Administration 51(1). 13-30.
3. Shilaho, W. 2016. “Ethnic Mobilisation and Kenya’s Foreign Policy in the Face of the International Criminal Court (ICC)” in Journal for Contemporary History 41(1). pp. 103-125.

Dr Yolanda K Spies

1. Spies, Y K 2016 ‘Africa and the Idea of International Society. In Journal for Contemporary History. 41(1). 38-56

Dr Masters, Lesley

1. South Africa’s two track approach to science diplomacy. Journal for Contemporary History. June 2016
2. Co-authored with Fritz Nganje Foreign aid and diplomacy. Submitted February 2016. University of British Columbia Diplomacy encyclopaedia project.

Professor Chris Landsberg

1. “African solutions for African problems: Quiet diplomacy and South Africa’s diplomatic strategy towards Zimbabwe”, Journal of Contemporary History, Special Edition, June 2016.
2. “The Africa Peer Review Mechanism”, in Kazan Journal of International Law and International Relations, Special Issue, Russian and South African Association of International Law, 2016.
3. The Thabo Mbeki I Know, in Sifiso M. Ndlovu and Miranda Strydom (eds), The Thabo Mbeki I Know, PicadorAfrica, 2016 pp. 507-517.
4. “Political Leadership”, in Theo H. Veldsman and Andrew J. Johnsonn (eds), Leadership Perspectives from the Frontline, Knowledge Resources, 2016
5. Co-edited with Suzy Graham, Government and Politics in South Africa: Coming of Age, Van Schaik Publishers, 2016, (Forthcoming),
6. Africa Rise Up! Perspectives on African Renewal, Africa Institute of South Africa, 2016 (PortoAlegre).
7. “Pan-African Internationalism through Partnership, Not Neo-paternalism”, The Thinker, Vol. 69, 2016.

Dr Odubajo, Adetola

1. The Quest for Peace in Nigeria’s Plateau (Africa Insight), Vol. 46, No. 2, 2016
2. Odubajo T., Ottoh F. The Roles Of External Actors In The Resolution Of Nigeria-Cameroon Boundary Dispute Kazan Journal of International Law and International Relations, Issue 8, 2016.

Dr Fritz Nganje

1. ‘The Rhetoric and Practice of the International Responsibility to Prevent Mass Atrocities: Reflections on South Africa’s Peacebuilding Role in South Sudan (2005 – 2013)’, African Security Review, forthcoming in Vol.26, No.1, March 2017.
2. ‘Brazilian cities in Mozambique: South-South development cooperation or the projection of soft power?’ Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.42, No.4, June 2016, pp.659-674.
3. ‘Historical institutionalism and the development of sub-state diplomacy in South Africa’, Journal for Contemporary History, Vol.41, No.1, June 2016, pp. 149-168.
4. ‘Sub-state diplomacy and the foreign policy-development nexus in South Africa’, South African Journal of International Affairs, Vol.23, No.1, March 2016, pp.1-20.

Dr Brendan Vickers

1. Brendan Vickers “Still Leading in sub-Saharan Africa? “Africa the need for change
2. Edited by Giovanni Carbone, Ledizioni Ledi Publishing, 2016 pp. 93-114

E.B. Niyitunga

1. E.B. Niyitunga (2016): ‘African Union and the Mediated peace in Africa: A case of Political unrest in Burundi’ in Mammo Muchie, Vusi Gumede, Samuel Oloruntoba and Nicasius Achu Check (eds.). Regenerating Africa: Bringing African Solutions to African Problems. AISA, South Africa.
2. Assessing the missing link within the concept of preventative diplomacy with reference to African conflicts. Published by: The Journal for Contemporary History, December issue 2016. University of the Free State.
3. Impact of ‘Global War on Terror’ on the rights of refugees and Asylum seekers in the horn of Africa – an analysis of the Somali refugees and Asylum seekers in Kenya. Published by: Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), African Insight Vol 45 (3)- December 2015
4. Eric Blanco Niyitunga (2016). Across the lines of conflict: Facilitating cooperation to build peace. Published by SAIIA ans Taylor & Francis Group http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10220461.2016.1221775 ​

2014

24 November 2014

Opinion: Mediation is not a mystical work: The need for the professionalization of mediation processes by the AU
By Eric Blanco Niyitunga

Is mediation a specialized means for diplomatically resolving conflict or is it a matter of guess work? In Africa, through the African Union (AU), mediation has not been viewed as a specialized method that requires professionalism and expertise. In many cases mediation tasks are assigned to former African heads of state to undertake, without due regard to their mediation professionalism and experience. (Read more)​

17 November 2014

Opinion: The Burkina Faso Uprising: The Absence of Memory among African Strong Men
By Dr Westen Shilaho

Is the Burkina Faso uprising a harbinger of the Black Spring in Sub-Saharan Africa? Burkinabe former strong man, Blaise Campaore, was forced to flee into exile in Ivory Coast in October 2014 when an attempt to elongate his stay in power was resisted through a popular uprising. The Burkinabe populace could not understand what unfinished business Campaore, who had been in power for almost 30 years, had by insisting on influencing a malleable parliament into amending the constitution to allow him to run for yet another term. Campaore came into power through a bloody coup in 1987 during which his childhood friend and one of Africa’s most celebrated sons, Thomas Sankara, was assassinated. (Read more)​

​​Nelson Mandela: The legacy of a Political Luminary
By Chris Landsberg

With the 5th of December marking the first anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s death, the world’s attention will return to focus on South Africa and the commemoration of its first democratically elected president. Read more

3 November 2014

​Recent Publication: Emerging Powers and the Responsibility to Prevent Mass Atrocities: Lessons from South Sudan

By Dr Fritz Nganje The paper examines the role of emerging powers in the prevention of mass atrocities in the context of South Sudan. The analysis is built on two key premises:

First, that R2P offers no new legal or political framework for addressing the fundamental challenges that have historically undermined international action to stop mass atrocities.At best, it makes a strong moral case against international inaction and refocuses global attention on preventing rather than responding to mass atrocities. Second, given their aversion to intervention for supposed humanitarian purposes, the preventive pillars of R2P provide emerging powers with an opportunity to assume leadership in shaping the development of the norm, both in discourse and practice. Read more​

​​Recent publication: South Africa and South-South Approaches to Post-Conflict Development in Africa.
By Dr Fritz Nganje ACCORD, Conflict Trends. Issue 3, 2014 Read more

​Opinion: Future’s thought and policy initiatives: Designer or Fad Futures?
By Lara Hierro

Futures and Futures methodology has become the go-to paradigm in social science and its application to complex phenomena. This has been the case the last 5 years especially so here in South Africa, in think-tank speak and to some extent policy analysis. This has been especially so when predicting or forecasting scenarios applicable to African development paths. Click here to read the full opinion piece

​​Opinion: Maritime piracy: why definitions matter By Lisa Otto

Industry stakeholders and government officials from various countries met in London on 23 and 24 September to discuss maritime piracy in West Africa under an initiative organised by the America-based Oceans Beyond Piracy. With piratical acts in the Gulf of Guinea rendering these waters some of the most dangerous in the world, threatening economic and security imperatives in a region of geostrategic importance; this issue was the focus of the discussion Click here to read the full opinion piece

​ Opinion: Kenya’s 2013 Elections: Political Actors Still Behaving Badly

By Westen K. Shilaho Kenya’s 2013 elections entrenched status quo politics. The controversial triumph by an ethnic alliance led by Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, indicted by the International Criminal (ICC) for allegedly masterminding crimes against humanity in the wake of the disputed elections in 2007, cemented further a local oligarchy’s stranglehold on the country’s politics. This oligarchy defined itself not on the basis of entrepreneurship, but in rent-seeking owing to state capture. The election results showed how difficult it is to hold free, fair and credible elections in a polity in which those who monopolise capital and power were the very same individuals expected to facilitate a fair political playing field that creates a possibility of them losing power. Click here to read the full opinion piece

​Opinion: ‘African Solutions to African Problems’: A handicapped doctrine of Africa’s International Relations

By Eric Blanco Niyitunga The doctrine of ‘African Solutions to African Problems’ (ASAP) has created a lot of debate among African scholars both on the continent and in the diaspora. Two contending groups of scholarship has emerged. On the one hand, there are those that point out the failures of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the failures of its successor the African Union (AU) in Libya and Ivory Coast, as well as the prevalence of insecurity, impunity and poverty on the continent. Those who hold this perception, therefor, argue that the doctrine of ASAP yet is another African problem on its own and that Africa is not yet capable of resolving its own problems. On the other hand, other scholars point on the ‘Concert of Europe’, which was basically the concert that helped find the European Solutions to European Problems, and argues that Africa is able to redefine its own problems and applicable solutions to them, if only the dictatorial forces emanating from the West give us a space. Click here to read the full opinion piece

​Death by #Hashtag By Odilile Ayodele In the last decade the world has literally gotten smaller. People from Tibet to Thohoyandou can interact and rally around an issue. Even governments across the world are starting to harness the growing connectivity. South Africa, and Africa as a collective, need to be on the curve or even better, be ahead of the connectivity curve. Internet connected devices, including mobile phones, have seen citizens mobilising and becoming activists as well as expecting more interaction with their governments. Click here to read the full opinion piece​ Dr Dlamini-Zuma and the AU’s Agenda 2063

By Chris Landsberg Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s assumption to the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), was greeted with much controversy. There were widely-held assumptions that South Africa’s bid for this position was driven by ulterior motives, not in the least that it wished to build its international prestige so as to justify its status as an African “Lead” nation, and the more serious charge that it wished to use the Commission as an instrument for Pretoria’s foreign policy ambitions. Click here to read the full opinion piece​ ​​The 69th Session of the UN: the disaggregation of global governance