Kwesi Aning
Biographic Data
| ID | 231324 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kwesi Aning |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kwesi |
| FAMILY NAME | Aning |
| SIGNATURE | ANING K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7915-420X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 75 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Resurgent Coup d’États, Democratic Reversals, and Geopolitical Shifts in Africa
Transitions between “military” and “democratic” rule significantly impact the political stability of African states and challenge the legitimacy of “global governance” mechanisms promoted by regional and international organizations. Development and growth theories have long explored the durable implications of military coups d’état for social, political, and economic outcomes in Africa. An emerging body of critical scholarship has examined the re…
Hybrid Security Provision in African Post-colonial Settings: The Cases of Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone
The Weberian paradigm’s ascription of a legitimate state’s provision of security and justice overlooks the role played by non-state actors in the post-colonial world. Adopting a hybridity framework enables scholars and practitioners to re-centre the focus from a state-centric view of states as fragile or failed to recognise the strength and resilience of alternative socio-political formations of order. Existing evidence on hybrid political orders…
Domestic Peacekeeping Practices in the Tamale Metropolis
This article contributes to understanding local security practices in urban Africa by examining links between international peacekeeping and local policing in Tamale, the capital of Ghana’s Northern Region. It uses the concept of assemblage to suggest that while experiences, skills and lessons gained from consistent engagement in United Nations peacekeeping may be detected in local policing in Tamale, their effects on everyday policing are in pra…
African experiences and alternativity in International Relations theorizing about security
Deconstructing International Relations (IR) episteme acknowledges its generation of power imbalances in security knowledge that relegate African experiences to the margins of global politics. Central to this process of relegation is a pervasive 'methodological whiteness', which, while eliding coloniality and racism, projects white experience as a universal perspective. Accompanying this Eurocentric bias has been the intrusive projection of the We…
Cote d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire first experienced a civil war in 2002, but the country’s rapid socio-political disintegration after the demise of Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993 produced several risk factors that would eventually culminate in atrocity crimes between 2010 and 2011. This article identifies a weak state that only exercised jurisdiction over the south of the country, years of instability driven by horizontal inequalities and an identity crisis, past ab…
Exploring Peace Formation: Security and Justice in Post-colonial States
This chapter addresses indigenous ways of dispute resolution in the South Pacific island state of Vanuatu. It is argued that such kastom dispute resolution is not only of relevance for the everyday life of people in rural areas and for local conflicts, but is also utilised in urban environments and in the context of the state and national politics. A number of cases from Vanuatu’s recent history are presented, in which the intervention of ‘tradit…
Peacekeeping in a Francophone Space: Experiences of Ghanaian Peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire
This article adds historical and empirical insights to the ongoing global debate on peace operations in francophone contexts, by providing a historical analysis of Ghana’s participation in francophone peacekeeping operations, with a special focus on Côte d’Ivoire. It investigates the interrelationship between anglo-francophone African peace operations and its implications for negotiating colonial discourses and barriers and as a means to promotin…
West Africa’s Ebola Pandemic: Toward Effective Multilateral Responses to Health Crises
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2014 became the region's most dangerous pandemic in history. Initially misdiagnosed by health authorities in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the epicenters of the crises, the wider health infrastructure of the international community similarly failed to grasp the enormity of the challenge posed by this pandemic to West Africa and its potential global ramifications. By the time recognitio…
African Agency in R2P: Interventions by African Union and Ecowas in Mali, Cote D’ivoire, and Libya
Both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been global leaders in embracing and operationalizing responsibility to protect (R2P). The adoption of the AU’s Constitutive Act, Article 4 (h) in 2000, has transformed its old-fashioned principle of noninterference to one of nonindifference. This authorizes the AU to intervene in Member States with respect to war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and cr…
Peacekeeping Economies in a Sub-Regional Context: The Paradigmatic Cases of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire
One conflict zone that has experienced multiple but differentiated impacts of peacekeeping economies is the Mano River Union (MRU) area. Comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, it provides the empirical evidence for the analysis in this article. Two major questions form the basis of the discussions. First, how do the mandate, size, and composition of a peacekeeping operation affect the evolution of the peacekeeping economy? Secondly, …
Unintended Impacts and the Gendered Consequences of Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia
Despite increased international attention to managing the potential impacts of peacekeeping on host countries, unintended consequences continue to emerge. This article focuses particularly on the alternative economies that peacekeeping operations generate and the differential economic impacts on individuals who come into contact with peacekeepers. Based on empirical evidence derived from fieldwork in Liberia, the article highlights the everyday l…
Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana
This article examines the incidences of Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana. It explores socio-economic and political dynamics, doctrinal and interpretational differences as sources of Islamic radicalisation and violence among the three major religious groups, namely, Al-tijaniyya Movement, Ahlussunna Waljama'a and Ahmadiyya Movement. The paper further explores how diverse factors such as preaching methodologies, external financial suppo…
Military Challenges and Threats in West Africa
Accountability for Intervention: Negotiating Civilian Protection Dilemmas with Respect to Economic Community of West African States and African Union Interventions
African states have been confronted with myriad challenges, especially in the areas of peace and security. As a result of the perceived reluctance or inability of the international community, specifically the United Nations, to intervene in a timely fashion in Africa's conflicts, regional and subregional organizations in Africa have assumed a greater role in conflict prevention, management, resolution, and peacekeeping in Africa. Notably, the Eco…
The Neglected Economic Dimensions of Ecowas's Negotiated Peace Accords in West Africa
Since its first intervention in Liberia in December 1989, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has, in conjunction with the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), managed to resolve intrastate violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire through its political and military interventions. One aspect of the work undertaken by the ECOWAS that has received little scholarly attention are the economic dimensions of the …
China and Africa: Towards a new security relationship
Security, the War on Terror, and official development assistance
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the subsequent declaration of a War on Terror, several international issues have been affected, including the disbursement of official development assistance. This paper examines the connections between development aid, security, and the War on Terror and analyses the manner in which these linkages are impacting on the orientation, understanding, performance, and efficacy of existing offic…
Perspectives on President Barack Obama's Africa Foreign Policy
Responsibility to Protect in Africa: An analysis of the African Union's Peace and Security architecture
In this paper we argue that, since its birth, the African Union (AU) has established a set of norms and principles that mirror the tenets of R2P as agreed to by the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit. These norms and principles coupled with the AU's peace and security architecture make it proactive in conflict prevention and the management of crisis situations on the continent. Collaborative ventures between the African Union (at the conti…
US Peace Operations Policy in Africa: From Acri to Africom
This article examines the changing nature of US peacekeeping policy in Africa in the post-cold war period. After an account of the failures in Somalia and Rwanda in the early 1990s, it traces the evolution of various training programmes, from the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) in the early 1990s to the African Command (AFRICOM). We argue that, while these initiatives had some characteristics that were welcomed by African states, the pr…
China's ventures in Africa
The Role of Private Military Companies in US-Africa Policy
This article discusses the increasing use of private military companies (PMCs) in United States’ security policy in Africa, and examines this phenomenon in relation to the US’ various military training programmes on the continent. We argue that the increasing use of PMCs in US security policy has evolved due to two critical and mutually dependent developments; African state weakness and resource stringency on the one hand, and the US's overwhelmi…
From ‘voluntary’ to a ‘binding’ process: Towards the securitisation of small arms
This article analyses the issue of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation in both Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Specifically, it assesses the extent to which both Ghana and ECOWAS have ‘securitised’ this particular issue through an initial ‘voluntary’ instrument first in 1998 and extended in 2001 until the signing in June 2006 of a legally and politically binding ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and L…
Are there Emerging West African Criminal Networks? The Case of Ghana
This paper situates discussions about emerging African Criminal Networks (ACN) within Ghana specifically, and West Africa generally, and seeks to present the initial results of an empirically based study on the activities of transnational organised criminal (TOCs) groups in Ghana. The paper argues that the nature of state and statehood in Africa and its inability to establish effective regulatory mechanisms contributes to the rise of these partic…
Assessing the role of the African Union in preventing and combating terrorism in Africa
The period after 9/11 can be characterised as the terrorism moment in world history. Every actor in international relations—the state, regional, continental and international as well as civil society organisations—has been mobilised to combat what, apparently has been conceived as a common security threat to humanity. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) was a divine coincidence at a time when …
Unintended Impacts and the Gendered Consequences of Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia
Despite increased international attention to managing the potential impacts of peacekeeping on host countries, unintended consequences continue to emerge. This article focuses particularly on the alternative economies that peacekeeping operations generate and the differential economic impacts on individuals who come into contact with peacekeepers. Based on empirical evidence derived from fieldwork in Liberia, the article highlights the everyday l…
African Agency in R2P: Interventions by African Union and Ecowas in Mali, Cote D’ivoire, and Libya
Both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been global leaders in embracing and operationalizing responsibility to protect (R2P). The adoption of the AU’s Constitutive Act, Article 4 (h) in 2000, has transformed its old-fashioned principle of noninterference to one of nonindifference. This authorizes the AU to intervene in Member States with respect to war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and cr…
Peacekeeping Economies in a Sub-Regional Context: The Paradigmatic Cases of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire
One conflict zone that has experienced multiple but differentiated impacts of peacekeeping economies is the Mano River Union (MRU) area. Comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, it provides the empirical evidence for the analysis in this article. Two major questions form the basis of the discussions. First, how do the mandate, size, and composition of a peacekeeping operation affect the evolution of the peacekeeping economy? Secondly, …
Security, the War on Terror, and official development assistance
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the subsequent declaration of a War on Terror, several international issues have been affected, including the disbursement of official development assistance. This paper examines the connections between development aid, security, and the War on Terror and analyses the manner in which these linkages are impacting on the orientation, understanding, performance, and efficacy of existing offic…
Assessing the role of the African Union in preventing and combating terrorism in Africa
The period after 9/11 can be characterised as the terrorism moment in world history. Every actor in international relations—the state, regional, continental and international as well as civil society organisations—has been mobilised to combat what, apparently has been conceived as a common security threat to humanity. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) was a divine coincidence at a time when …
The Role of Private Military Companies in US-Africa Policy
This article discusses the increasing use of private military companies (PMCs) in United States’ security policy in Africa, and examines this phenomenon in relation to the US’ various military training programmes on the continent. We argue that the increasing use of PMCs in US security policy has evolved due to two critical and mutually dependent developments; African state weakness and resource stringency on the one hand, and the US's overwhelmi…
African experiences and alternativity in International Relations theorizing about security
Deconstructing International Relations (IR) episteme acknowledges its generation of power imbalances in security knowledge that relegate African experiences to the margins of global politics. Central to this process of relegation is a pervasive 'methodological whiteness', which, while eliding coloniality and racism, projects white experience as a universal perspective. Accompanying this Eurocentric bias has been the intrusive projection of the We…
Are there Emerging West African Criminal Networks? The Case of Ghana
This paper situates discussions about emerging African Criminal Networks (ACN) within Ghana specifically, and West Africa generally, and seeks to present the initial results of an empirically based study on the activities of transnational organised criminal (TOCs) groups in Ghana. The paper argues that the nature of state and statehood in Africa and its inability to establish effective regulatory mechanisms contributes to the rise of these partic…
Peacekeeping in a Francophone Space: Experiences of Ghanaian Peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire
This article adds historical and empirical insights to the ongoing global debate on peace operations in francophone contexts, by providing a historical analysis of Ghana’s participation in francophone peacekeeping operations, with a special focus on Côte d’Ivoire. It investigates the interrelationship between anglo-francophone African peace operations and its implications for negotiating colonial discourses and barriers and as a means to promotin…
West Africa’s Ebola Pandemic: Toward Effective Multilateral Responses to Health Crises
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2014 became the region's most dangerous pandemic in history. Initially misdiagnosed by health authorities in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the epicenters of the crises, the wider health infrastructure of the international community similarly failed to grasp the enormity of the challenge posed by this pandemic to West Africa and its potential global ramifications. By the time recognitio…
Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana
This article examines the incidences of Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana. It explores socio-economic and political dynamics, doctrinal and interpretational differences as sources of Islamic radicalisation and violence among the three major religious groups, namely, Al-tijaniyya Movement, Ahlussunna Waljama'a and Ahmadiyya Movement. The paper further explores how diverse factors such as preaching methodologies, external financial suppo…
The Neglected Economic Dimensions of Ecowas's Negotiated Peace Accords in West Africa
Since its first intervention in Liberia in December 1989, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has, in conjunction with the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), managed to resolve intrastate violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire through its political and military interventions. One aspect of the work undertaken by the ECOWAS that has received little scholarly attention are the economic dimensions of the …
US Peace Operations Policy in Africa: From Acri to Africom
This article examines the changing nature of US peacekeeping policy in Africa in the post-cold war period. After an account of the failures in Somalia and Rwanda in the early 1990s, it traces the evolution of various training programmes, from the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) in the early 1990s to the African Command (AFRICOM). We argue that, while these initiatives had some characteristics that were welcomed by African states, the pr…
Responsibility to Protect in Africa: An analysis of the African Union's Peace and Security architecture
In this paper we argue that, since its birth, the African Union (AU) has established a set of norms and principles that mirror the tenets of R2P as agreed to by the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit. These norms and principles coupled with the AU's peace and security architecture make it proactive in conflict prevention and the management of crisis situations on the continent. Collaborative ventures between the African Union (at the conti…
Keeping the Peace in Africa: Challenges and opportunities
Assessing the role of the African Union in preventing and combating terrorism in Africa
The period after 9/11 can be characterised as the terrorism moment in world history. Every actor in international relations—the state, regional, continental and international as well as civil society organisations—has been mobilised to combat what, apparently has been conceived as a common security threat to humanity. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) was a divine coincidence at a time when …
Are there Emerging West African Criminal Networks? The Case of Ghana
This paper situates discussions about emerging African Criminal Networks (ACN) within Ghana specifically, and West Africa generally, and seeks to present the initial results of an empirically based study on the activities of transnational organised criminal (TOCs) groups in Ghana. The paper argues that the nature of state and statehood in Africa and its inability to establish effective regulatory mechanisms contributes to the rise of these partic…
US Peace Operations Policy in Africa: From Acri to Africom
This article examines the changing nature of US peacekeeping policy in Africa in the post-cold war period. After an account of the failures in Somalia and Rwanda in the early 1990s, it traces the evolution of various training programmes, from the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) in the early 1990s to the African Command (AFRICOM). We argue that, while these initiatives had some characteristics that were welcomed by African states, the pr…
China's ventures in Africa
The Role of Private Military Companies in US-Africa Policy
This article discusses the increasing use of private military companies (PMCs) in United States’ security policy in Africa, and examines this phenomenon in relation to the US’ various military training programmes on the continent. We argue that the increasing use of PMCs in US security policy has evolved due to two critical and mutually dependent developments; African state weakness and resource stringency on the one hand, and the US's overwhelmi…
From ‘voluntary’ to a ‘binding’ process: Towards the securitisation of small arms
This article analyses the issue of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation in both Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Specifically, it assesses the extent to which both Ghana and ECOWAS have ‘securitised’ this particular issue through an initial ‘voluntary’ instrument first in 1998 and extended in 2001 until the signing in June 2006 of a legally and politically binding ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and L…
Perspectives on President Barack Obama's Africa Foreign Policy
Responsibility to Protect in Africa: An analysis of the African Union's Peace and Security architecture
In this paper we argue that, since its birth, the African Union (AU) has established a set of norms and principles that mirror the tenets of R2P as agreed to by the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit. These norms and principles coupled with the AU's peace and security architecture make it proactive in conflict prevention and the management of crisis situations on the continent. Collaborative ventures between the African Union (at the conti…
China and Africa: Towards a new security relationship
Security, the War on Terror, and official development assistance
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the subsequent declaration of a War on Terror, several international issues have been affected, including the disbursement of official development assistance. This paper examines the connections between development aid, security, and the War on Terror and analyses the manner in which these linkages are impacting on the orientation, understanding, performance, and efficacy of existing offic…
Military Challenges and Threats in West Africa
Accountability for Intervention: Negotiating Civilian Protection Dilemmas with Respect to Economic Community of West African States and African Union Interventions
African states have been confronted with myriad challenges, especially in the areas of peace and security. As a result of the perceived reluctance or inability of the international community, specifically the United Nations, to intervene in a timely fashion in Africa's conflicts, regional and subregional organizations in Africa have assumed a greater role in conflict prevention, management, resolution, and peacekeeping in Africa. Notably, the Eco…
The Neglected Economic Dimensions of Ecowas's Negotiated Peace Accords in West Africa
Since its first intervention in Liberia in December 1989, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has, in conjunction with the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), managed to resolve intrastate violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire through its political and military interventions. One aspect of the work undertaken by the ECOWAS that has received little scholarly attention are the economic dimensions of the …
Unintended Impacts and the Gendered Consequences of Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia
Despite increased international attention to managing the potential impacts of peacekeeping on host countries, unintended consequences continue to emerge. This article focuses particularly on the alternative economies that peacekeeping operations generate and the differential economic impacts on individuals who come into contact with peacekeepers. Based on empirical evidence derived from fieldwork in Liberia, the article highlights the everyday l…
Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana
This article examines the incidences of Islamic radicalisation and violence in Ghana. It explores socio-economic and political dynamics, doctrinal and interpretational differences as sources of Islamic radicalisation and violence among the three major religious groups, namely, Al-tijaniyya Movement, Ahlussunna Waljama'a and Ahmadiyya Movement. The paper further explores how diverse factors such as preaching methodologies, external financial suppo…
Peacekeeping Economies in a Sub-Regional Context: The Paradigmatic Cases of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire
One conflict zone that has experienced multiple but differentiated impacts of peacekeeping economies is the Mano River Union (MRU) area. Comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, it provides the empirical evidence for the analysis in this article. Two major questions form the basis of the discussions. First, how do the mandate, size, and composition of a peacekeeping operation affect the evolution of the peacekeeping economy? Secondly, …
African Agency in R2P: Interventions by African Union and Ecowas in Mali, Cote D’ivoire, and Libya
Both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been global leaders in embracing and operationalizing responsibility to protect (R2P). The adoption of the AU’s Constitutive Act, Article 4 (h) in 2000, has transformed its old-fashioned principle of noninterference to one of nonindifference. This authorizes the AU to intervene in Member States with respect to war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and cr…
Peacekeeping in a Francophone Space: Experiences of Ghanaian Peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire
This article adds historical and empirical insights to the ongoing global debate on peace operations in francophone contexts, by providing a historical analysis of Ghana’s participation in francophone peacekeeping operations, with a special focus on Côte d’Ivoire. It investigates the interrelationship between anglo-francophone African peace operations and its implications for negotiating colonial discourses and barriers and as a means to promotin…
West Africa’s Ebola Pandemic: Toward Effective Multilateral Responses to Health Crises
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2014 became the region's most dangerous pandemic in history. Initially misdiagnosed by health authorities in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the epicenters of the crises, the wider health infrastructure of the international community similarly failed to grasp the enormity of the challenge posed by this pandemic to West Africa and its potential global ramifications. By the time recognitio…
Exploring Peace Formation: Security and Justice in Post-colonial States
This chapter addresses indigenous ways of dispute resolution in the South Pacific island state of Vanuatu. It is argued that such kastom dispute resolution is not only of relevance for the everyday life of people in rural areas and for local conflicts, but is also utilised in urban environments and in the context of the state and national politics. A number of cases from Vanuatu’s recent history are presented, in which the intervention of ‘tradit…
Cote d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire first experienced a civil war in 2002, but the country’s rapid socio-political disintegration after the demise of Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993 produced several risk factors that would eventually culminate in atrocity crimes between 2010 and 2011. This article identifies a weak state that only exercised jurisdiction over the south of the country, years of instability driven by horizontal inequalities and an identity crisis, past ab…
Domestic Peacekeeping Practices in the Tamale Metropolis
This article contributes to understanding local security practices in urban Africa by examining links between international peacekeeping and local policing in Tamale, the capital of Ghana’s Northern Region. It uses the concept of assemblage to suggest that while experiences, skills and lessons gained from consistent engagement in United Nations peacekeeping may be detected in local policing in Tamale, their effects on everyday policing are in pra…
African experiences and alternativity in International Relations theorizing about security
Deconstructing International Relations (IR) episteme acknowledges its generation of power imbalances in security knowledge that relegate African experiences to the margins of global politics. Central to this process of relegation is a pervasive 'methodological whiteness', which, while eliding coloniality and racism, projects white experience as a universal perspective. Accompanying this Eurocentric bias has been the intrusive projection of the We…
Hybrid Security Provision in African Post-colonial Settings: The Cases of Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone
The Weberian paradigm’s ascription of a legitimate state’s provision of security and justice overlooks the role played by non-state actors in the post-colonial world. Adopting a hybridity framework enables scholars and practitioners to re-centre the focus from a state-centric view of states as fragile or failed to recognise the strength and resilience of alternative socio-political formations of order. Existing evidence on hybrid political orders…
Political science (26 works) · Law (21 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Political economy (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Politics (17 works) · Economics (14 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (14 works) · Development economics (13 works) · International Development and Aid (12 works)