In this comprehensive study, 15 African experts describe and analyse the military budgetary processes and degree of parliamentary oversight and control in nine countries of Africa, spanning across all the continent's sub-regions. Each case study addresses a wide range of questions, such as the roles of the ministries of finance, budget offices, audit departments and external actors in the military budgetary processes, the extent of compliance with standard public expenditure management procedures, and how well official military expenditure figures reflect the true economic resources devoted to military activities in these countries.

Increases in the number and improvements in the quality of arms transferred to sub-Saharan African nations clearly will affect those nations' economic development and political stability both immediately and in the long term. Problems of technology absorption, manpower development, and the diversion of financial and human resources occasioned by such transfers become more and more critical as the demand for military modernization by African governments grows and the industrial nations compete to meet the demand. Dr. Arlinghaus evaluates conflicting assessments of the costs and benefits of military development from the perspective that it would be best for African nations to allocate resources for defense on the basis of socioeconomic considerations as well as their military and political goals.

From Defence to Development: Redirecting military resources in South Africa

Mission Creep: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy? examines the question of whether the US Department of Defense (DOD) has assumed too large a role in influencing and implementing US foreign policy while confronting the challenges arising from terrorism, Islamic radicalism, insurgencies, ethnic conflicts and failed states.

Explores the mechanisms of military intervention and its consequences. The contributors examine a succession of coups, attempted coups, and established military regimes, with a view to evaluate the role of the military as a ruling group and an organization fostering political development. These studies cast strong doubt on the abilities of the military as a modernizing and stabilizing agent, raising important questions about our policies on military assistance and arms sales. Bienen makes an especially strong plea for a reassessment of our military and economic-political policies in order to determine whether both are working toward the same goals.

First published in 1982, this book aims to examine the role that ruling military governments have played in African development. Dr Odetola discusses military organisational values and skills in modernisation and argues that the evocation and application of these values and skills depends on the character of the leadership of individual ruling juntas, their degree of professional training, proximity to civilian society and so on. He also investigates the relationship between the ruling military and existing social classes.

A detailed and thorough chronological overview of the history of warfare and military structures in Africa, covering ancient times to the present day. A Military History of Africa achieves a daunting task: it synthesizes decades of specialized academic research and literature—including the most recent material—to offer an accessible survey of Africa's military history, from the earliest times to the present day. The first volume examines the precolonial period beginning with warfare in ancient North Africa including ancient Egypt and Carthage and continues through the cavalry-based Muslim empires of the trans-Sahara trade and the wars of the slave trade in West and East Africa. The second volume focuses on the wars of European colonial conquest and African resistance during the late 19th century, African participation in both world wars, and the early violent struggles for independence from the 1950s and early 1960s. The third volume explores warfare in postcolonial Africa, including coverage of the impact of the global Cold War, conflicts in Southern Africa from the 1960s to 1980s, the development of postcolonial African armed forces, and civil wars sparked by the discovery of precious resources, such as diamonds in Sierra Leone. Readers of this three-volume work will understand how warfare and military structures have been consistently central to the development of African societies.