More and more African countries are falling prey to civil war and the disintegration of government authority and social order. Here, for the first time, teams of African scholars actually based in the countries principally affected examine what is happening. Their first aim has been to understand the complex and diverse roots of these conflicts. To this end, they analyse the conflicts in Angola, Burundi and Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Somalia and Somaliland. They also reflect on the general obstacles to comprehending conflict in Africa. Possible ways of anticipating, containing and indeed preventing new conflicts are discussed, as are the experiences of successful transitions to peace in Northern Mali and post-civil war Nigeria. Proposals for mastering conflict in future range over a wide diversity of ideas like a moratorium on the importation of arms, trans-frontier development projects, political reform creating real space for participation by different social groups, and governmental decentralisation. This timely volume is a significant contribution by African intellectuals to resolving the most intractable problems confronting Sub-Saharan Africa.

The African continent has experienced too many violent conflicts leading to much loss of life, destruction of infrastructure, disruption of productive socio-economic activity, displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and the diversion of scarce resources towards arms procurement. It is clear to all that for sustainable development of the African continent, it is important that policy makers and all levels of society understand Africa's security challenges so that all may work towards sustainable peace and security for the African continent. This book is a collection of papers, most of them written for the journal African Renaissance, by prominent African scholars and practitioners who seek to understand the various causes of African conflicts, the many forms and different dimensions that these conflicts have taken, their devastating effects and the challenges for sustainable peace and security on the African continent. The book is proudly blessed by the inclusion (with permission) of the report of the outgoing United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan entitled "e;The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa"e;. The book is aimed at policy makers, academics, students, and for all who are interested in peace, security and sustainable development on the African continent.

While dramatic changes are taking place on the international scene and among the major powers, Africa continues to suffer from a multitude of violent conflicts. The toll of these conflicts is monumental in terms of war damage to productivity, scarce resources diverted to armaments and military organizations, and the resulting insecurity, displacement, and destruction. At the same time, Africans, in response to internal demands as well as to international changes, have begun to focus their attention and energies on these problems and are trying innovative ways to resolve differences by nonviolent means. The outcomes of these attempts have urgent and complex implications for the future of the continent with respect to human rights, principles of democracy, and economic development. In this book, African, European, and U.S. experts examine these important issues and the prospects for conflict management and resolution in Africa. They review the scholarship in resolution in light of international changes now taking place. Addressing the undying, internal causes of conflict, they question whether global events will promote peace or threaten to unleash even more conflict. The authors focus their analysis on the issues involved in African conflicts and examine the areas in need of the most dramatic changes. They offer specific recommendations for dealing with current problems, but caution that unless policymakers confront the security situation in Africa, further destruction to national unity and political and economic stability is imminent. Case studies and themes for further, long-term research are recommended.

"These two volumes clearly demonstrate the efforts by a wide range of African scholars to explain the roots, routes, regimes and resolution of African conflicts and how to re-build post-conflict societies. They offer sober and serious analyses, eschewing the sensationalism of the western media and the sophistry of some of the scholars in the global North for whom African conflicts are at worst a distraction and at best a confirmation of their pet racist and petty universalist theories." --From the introduction by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza This book offers analyses of a range of African conflicts and demonstrates that peace is too important to be left to outsiders.

The prevailing narrative on Africa is that it is awash with violent conflict. Indeed, it does suffer from a multitude of conflicts — from border skirmishes to civil wars to terrorist attacks. Conflicts in Africa are diverse and complex, but there have been a number of cases of successful conflict management and resolution. What accounts for the successes and failures, and what can we learn from Africa’s experience? Minding the Gap: African Conflict Management in a Time of Change takes on these questions, bringing together more than 20 experts to examine the source of conflicts in Africa and assess African management capacity in the face of these conflicts.

This work, along with 'The Resolution of African Conflicts', clearly demonstrates the efforts by a wide range of African scholars to explain the roots, routes, regimes and resolution of African conflicts and how to re-build post-conflict societies.

In this book, African, European, and U.S. experts analyze the issues involved in African conflicts and examine the areas in need of the most dramatic changes. They offer specific recommendations for dealing with current problems, but caution that unless policymakers confront the security situation in Africa, further destruction to national unity and political and economic stability is imminent.