The continent of Africa has been the victim to countless modern and historic conflicts over the last few centuries. These conflicts have been shaped through multiple drivers, which hold the potential to affect the collective...
moreThe continent of Africa has been the victim to countless modern and historic conflicts over the last few centuries. These conflicts have been shaped through multiple drivers, which hold the potential to affect the collective international security equation. One region that has become a vexing and dynamic security paradox has been the Northeast African region. For the purpose of this document the nations of Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda will be the primary states of focus. This document identifies how inter-state conflicts have arisen over water and resource sharing as well as the usage of key strategic Sea Lines of Communication. Moreover, ethnic conflicts have generated violence, instability, and negative economic developments; from which increased support for piracy and contemporary Islamic extremism have grown. Piracy has manifested itself into the single greatest security challenge to the Northeast African region, with the second greatest being maritime terrorism. Furthermore, numerous regional players and external actors have aggravated various domestic problems, an affect that has created interlocking dangers within the regional and global security equation.
This document identifies those drivers of conflict responsible for creating violence throughout the targeted region. By utilizing various open source documents, organizational reports, and policy statements, this article analyzes the geographical, social, political, and military indicators of conflict specific to the region. Furthermore, various sets of conclusions are generated in order to determine how the regional security equation and complexes are affecting the current and future geostrategic interests of both regional actors and the international community.
