Committee: Security Council
Topic A: Peace keeping and stability in Africa
Photograph by Tim McKulka / Source: United Nations Photo
Residents participate in the observance of the International Day of Peace in Juba, Sudan, organized by the Southern Sudanese Peace Commission, United Nations Mission in Sudan, and the War Child Holland.
Instability – political, economic, and even social – has risen significantly in Africa over the past 50 years. Indeed, Africa is arguably the world’s most volatile and unstable continent. The political and economic stability of many African countries is continuously threatened by factors such as unequal development, poverty, widespread disease, violent conflict, and weak state institutions (Ong’ayo 2008, 2). Other factors contributing to this instability are rapid population growth, particularly in urban areas, food insecurity, weak infrastructure, and environmental degradation (Pinstrup-Andersen 1997). The political and economic instability brought on by the above factors oftentimes lead to civil unrest as the social fabric of many African countries may be tested by such instability.
On a deeper level, however, the root causes of this instability are most commonly attributed to Africa’s colonial past. European colonizers, in their quest for expanded empires and natural resources, seized large territories for their own throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To facilitate total rule over their colonies, European nations imposed their own rules of law and established their own systems of governance and state institutions. The institutions and laws established by colonial powers were expressely meant to benefit the colonizer, not the colonized. In fact, some European monarchs considred these colonies no more than their own personal fiefdoms (Hochschild 1998). In essence, Europe’s colonial powers established systems of exploitation in order to extract the continent’s valuable resources. Such systems were legitimized as efforts to promote technological progress and advance African populations (Rothermund 2006, 243). Needless to say, this was simply a cover-up to exploit Africa’s resources. Nevertheless, the nations of Europe continued to expand their empires well into the 20th century. By the end of the First World War, the entire continent had come under colonial rule with the exceptions of Liberia and Ethiopia (Duffy 2009).
It was not until the early 1960s that most African nations began to earn their independence. Following the wave of independence, optimism was high amongst Africa’s newly-independent nations for a future of political autonomy and economic prosperity. Yet, signs that African states were regressing began to show within a decade (Bates 2008). Most states plunged deeply into debt. Others suffered from predatory governments and authoritarian strongmen. Many were divided by ethnic, political, religious, or civil conflict. Whatever the problems, it was clear that there was mounting instability in most of Africa’s newly-independent nations.
One of the leading causes currently contributing to instability is ethnic conflict. Such conflict is often fueled by issues surrounding state borders. Indeed, many have pointed out that the national boundaries of Africa’s states were “arbitrarily imposed” (Touval 1967). The problem with delineating state boundaries like this is that the boudnaries rarely matched the existing precolonial political, economic, or social divisions (Thomson 2010, 14). The boundaries established by colonial powers were meant to serve their short-term interests rather than the long-term interests of the Africans that lived within those borders. The imposition of arbitrary boundaries has had many ramifications for modern Africa. For example, many borders left states without enough resources to build their economies thus making it very difficult for African states to grow. As a result, many African countries continue to struggle economically.
Aside from economic ramifications, the imposition of arbitrary boundaries has also engendered a number of political and social problems. One issue, for instance, is that colonial borders cut through existing political and social units, resulting in divisions between communities. For example, colonial boundaries lumped disparate groups of people into one common group or identity (for example, people previously referred to as Igbo or Yoruba become Nigerian). Conversely, arbitrary boundaries have also separated groups of similar people into different states, effectively creating a diaspora (for example, ethnic Somalis being divided between Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea). A prime example of the negative impacts of ethnic conflict can be seen in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which ethnic Hutus were responsible for the slaughter of over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in a time span of just 100 days.
Religious conflict has also contributed to instability. Nigeria, for example, is essentially split between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south (Zachary 2010). Tied into this religious division is “Northernization,” a process where southern Nigerians extract oil from the south, yet the revenues “float” to the north (Cao 2003). Consequently, many southern Nigerians have advocated the establishment of their own nation. Despite the efforts of many toward this end, a referendum for independence has not been reached because too many fear that a divided Nigeria would only worsen the situation. There is, of course, an analogous situation in Sudan. Eager to curb violence from spreading, the UN Security Council, in Resolution 1935, called for southern Sudan to seek its independence and further its commitment towards achieving peace within its small region. In January 2011, the southern Sudanese successfully called a referendum and seceded from Sudan.
Unfortunately, this instability has developed all too often into violence. States experiencing conflict become the focus of the United Nations, which often seeks to quell violence through the deployment of peacekeeping operations. Indeed, the UN has worked to promote stability in the continent’s most unstable regions through peacekeeping operations, charged with the task of helping countries in conflict “navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace” (UN 2011c). To be sure, the UN maintains a heavy peacekeeping presence throughout Africa. For instance, seven of the UN’s sixteen current peacekeeping operations are deployed in Africa, more than any other continent (UN 2011a). Out of a total of 52 peacekeeping operations the UN has deployed since 1988, 22 have been deployed in Africa. The continents with the next nearest number of past peacekeeping operations are the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe with eight apiece, clearly distinguishing Africa from its peers (UN 2011b). In addition to peacekeeping operations, the UN Security Council has also sought to curb violence through the use of economic sanctions, an instrument intended to “apply pressure on a State or entity to comply with the objectives set by the Security Council” (UN Security Council Sanctions Committees 2011). Sanctions have been used as a way for the UN to enforce its decisions.
Aside from peacekeeping operations and economic sanctions, the UN has also sought to facilitate stability by empowering the African Union (AU) to become an effective institution in the promotion of stability and peace throughout the continent. In many ways, the AU holds greater legitimacy than the UN amongst some African states since its own members consist exclusively of African states. The Security Council, recognizing the value of the AU in settling conflicts, passed Security Council Resolution 1809 in a move to affirm its commitment to supporting and working with the AU toward conflict settlement (UN Security Council 2008).
Africa is clearly prone to intense instability, largely as a result of its colonial past. So many of Africa's states were left with arbitrary boundaries, weak economies, and weak political institutions. While the United Nations has sought to counteract instability and violent conflict through the deployment of peacekeeping operations, the use of economic sanctions, and the promotion of the African Union in settling conflict, there is still a long way to go before many of Africa's problems are resolved. To this end, the UN must continue along its current path and perhaps even develop new and innovative ways to promote stability in such an unstable part of the world.
Questions
- How could developed economies in Africa lead to greater political stability?
- How can ethnic groups in Africa best achieve sovereignty without creating violence?
- What is the role of the United Nations in empowering the African Union? Are there things that the UN and AU can learn from each other?
- Are economic sanctions a useful weapon of the Security Council in fighting against injustice in Africa? If so, in what ways? If not, why? Are there potential problems with using economic sanctions?
- Should an African nation be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council?
Works Cited
Bates, Robert H. 2008. When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press.
Cao, Lan. 2003. “The Diaspora of Ethnic Economies: Beyond the Pale?” William and Mary Law Review 44 (4). Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=wmlr.
Duffy, Michael. 2009. “Contemporary Maps.” Firstworldwar.com. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/maps.htm.
Hochschild, Adam. 1998. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Orlando, Florida: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ong’ayo, Antony Otieno. 2008. “Political instability in Africa: Where the problem lies and alternative perspectives.” The African Diaspora Policy Centre. Presented at the Symposium 2008: “Afrika: een continent op drift.” 19 September 2008. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.diaspora-centre.org/DOCS/Political_Instabil.pdf.
Pinstrup-Andersen, Per. 1997. “FORUM – Attacking the Root Causes of Instability.” The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. CGIAR Newsletter 4 (4) (September 1997). Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.worldbank.org/html/cgiar/newsletter/Sept97/10ifpri.html.
Rothermund, Dietmar. 2006. The Routledge Companion to Decolonization. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Thomson, Alex. 2010. An Introduction to African Politics. Third Edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Touval, Saadia. 1967. “The Organization of African Unity and African Borders.” International Organization 21 (1), 102-27. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4278700.
United Nations. 2011. “Current peacekeeping operations.” United Nations. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/current.shtml.
United Nations. 2011. “Past peacekeeping operations.” United Nations. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/past.shtml.
United Nations. 2011. “What is peacekeeping?” United Nations. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/peacekeeping.shtml.
United Nations Security Council. 2008. “Resolution 1809 (2008).” United Nations. S/RES/1809 (2008). 16 April 2008. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Coop%20w%20Reg%20Orgs%20SRES1809.pdf.
United Nations Security Council Committees. 2011. “Security Council Sanctions Committees: An Overview.” United Nations. Accessed October 3, 2011 from: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/.
Zachary, G. Pascal. 2010. “Africa Needs a New Map.” Foreign Policy. 28 April 2010. Accessed September 28, 2011 from: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/28/africa_needs_a_new_map.