Sub Saharan African Politics and International Relations; War

This paper deals with the background, role players, sequence of events, geopolitical considerations and history of the Angolan War which took place from 1975 to 1990 between the Soviet Union and its allies & proxies on the one hand, and the Republic of South Africa and its allies on the other. It also has a section presenting a rebuttal of previously published material on this subject, and a section on disinformation techniques used in and by the Soviet Union.

This paper examines the recent appearance of several 'anti-heroic' memoirs of the South African 'Border War' written by conscripts. The use of the medical diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in these writings is critically examined. The memoirs reveal how difficult it is to articulate memories of contemporary war without drawing on a medical explanation. The South African memoirs also demonstrate the ambiguous role that the diagnosis of PTSD plays in, on the one hand, enabling the authors to speak about their experiences, while, on the other, providing an opportunity for them to distance themselves from the ethical implications of their own involvement in the war. The paper concludes that the tension within the identity of victim-perpetrator is perhaps too easily collapsed into simple victimhood.

Dans la province du Sud-Kivu de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), s’identifier comme étant la femme d’un rebelle ou d’un milicien revient à reconnaître que l’on est complice d’un ennemi de l’État. Pourtant, ces supposées « épouses» de
combattants armés non-étatiques sont obligées de survivre dans ou à la périphérie des zones de combat au travers de leurs relations conjugales, en dissimulant leur identité tout en utilisant leur affiliation aux groupes armés.
 
Une étude récente montre que de nombreuses femmes sont moins dépendantes de leurs « maris » que ce que l’on peut penser, et que les relations conjugales deviennent souvent un mécanisme de survie.

This article provides a review of the options facing the nations of the Horn of Africa now that a peace agreement has been signed between Ethiopia and Eritrea. There are still many obstacles to be overcome before it is possible to say that normality has been restored.

Since the 1960s, African states have sought ways to overcome the challenges of economic and political integration through the establishment and promotion of regional and sub-regional organizations across the continent. The different efforts have yielded very modest success altogether, however, it appears Africans are the architect of the continent's low level of integration. Africa's nationalist approach to international boundaries coupled with the inclination and disposition towards economic nationalism with regards to neighbouring states has been identified by studies as the major impediments to the process of integration in the continent. By adopting content analysis, this paper explores the nexus between the state's attitude to international boundaries and regional integration. The methodology analyses how European's attitude to international boundaries and the resulting trans-boundary cooperation between and among the different groups of European states before 1945 was instrumental to the historic success of integration in post-1945 Europe. Furthermore, the approach studies the pre-1945 European experience with trans-boundary cooperation as a template for assessing trans-boundary cooperation among African states during the colonial and post-colonial periods. Based on findings, the paper concludes that modest achievements so far recorded in the process of regional integration in Africa is a function of the nationalistic attitude of states to international boundary. Subsequently, the study recommends that to achieve real integration in the continent, Africans and their leaders must change their attitude towards inherited colonial boundaries from their prevailing official postures as lines of divides to a more liberal disposition as corridors of cooperation.

This document represents part of a post-conflict interaction and reconciliation process between retired Special Forces Operators of the South African Special Forces and retired Special Forces personnel of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) who fought against one another during the War in Namibia in the 1970s and 1980s.

The aim of this paper is to explore the so-called "dark side of democratisation", i.e. the perils which lie on the path towards full democracy, and its implications for democratising countries and the international community. The main dangers are international conflict, civil war, and mass killings. I discuss the relevant causal mechanisms and I emphasise a fil rouge which links each menace, namely the perverted use of ethno-nationalist ideology by the political actors in a country marred by weak institutions, in order to rally support. Given these dangers, I discuss the actions of the EU towards its mostly-democratising neighbourhood within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) framework and I find mixed to negative value judgments, mostly due to the inadequacy of the tools used in promoting democracy. Highlighting the need for meaningful reform of the ENP, I emphasise the importance of thoughtful democracy aid for preventing incomplete and dangerous democratisation. The research is completed by a number of insightful case studies.

In an attempt to modernise apartheid rule, the military became a central part of maintaining the status quo in South Africa between 1972 and 1988. It was not a typical praetorian regime as the military was invited into politics and never attempted a coup. The two faces of reform politics during the 1980s in South Africa consisted of (sham) reform and militarisation / reform and repression. The South African Defence Force (SADF) or Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag (SAW) became deeply involved in internal politics and in the destabilisation of South Africa's opponents in southern Africa, with Angola taking the brunt and operations executed from an occupied Namibia (then called South West Africa or Suidwes Afrika).

An article to the effect that the Angolan War was essentially a Cold War conflict between the Soviet Union and its proxies and the Republic of South Africa and its allies. It therefore did not represent an internecine state of hostilities between different polarised sections of the South African population.
(Note: There is a statistical error in the attached article. The figure of 300 000 Soviet Personnel refers to all Soviet personnel in Angola during that period - not military personnel alone. Soviet military and intelligence personnel in Angola during the period of the Angolan War numbered between 13 000 to 16 000).

This resource was developed for APSA's Summer 2020 Virtual
Teaching Workshop: Innovative Approaches to Online Teaching and
is part of a collection of online teaching resources available
through APSA Educate.

CLASS ACTIVITY: American Foreign Policy in Sub Saharan
Africa

يثير المقال التساؤل حول تأثير السياسات الاستعمارية على إفريقيا جنوب الصحراء ونشأة دولها بطريقة كرست الانقسامات والهوية الإثنية، ويفحص العلاقة بين أنماط الحكم الاستعماري (الحكم المباشر/ الحكم غير المباشر) والإثنية في هذه الدول..ويخلص إلى أن هذه السياسات لها تأثير كبير على الدول الإفريقية والانقسامات الإثنية فيها.

A paper dealing with post-conflict interaction and reconciliation between combat veterans of the South African Special Forces and combat veterans of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, who fought against one another during the Angolan War.