Funmi Olonisakin
Biographic Data
| ID | 390936 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Funmi Olonisakin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Funmi |
| FAMILY NAME | Olonisakin |
| SIGNATURE | OLONISAKIN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0787-6203 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Leadership in Crisis: Markers of sustained influence for societal mobilisation in response to Covid-19
COVID-19 posed an intense and prolonged threat to many aspects of societal life. Its global reach and impact was truly remarkable. This situation demanded a response that went beyond that of social mobilisation in “normal” times: it required the rapid deployment of the aggregation of an entire population and its resources to fight against this threat to their common existence. Societal mobilisation in this sense, was thus critical to an effective…
Understanding Vulnerability to Violent Extremism: Evidence from Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria
This paper analyses the links between socioeconomic concerns and one of the most significant conflicts in the world, the Boko Haram-led insurgency in Northeastern Nigeria. In doing so it centers group dynamics for analysis of how women and youth constituencies intersect with vulnerability to violent extremism. It offers sophisticated quantitative analysis of new and original gender- and age-disaggregated survey data, with over 80% female responde…
The role of the UN Security Council in health emergencies: Lessons from the Ebola response in Sierra Leone
The UN Security Council has increasingly involved itself in health emergencies over the last two decades, but the advantages and potential risk of its role have not been well explored. The experience Security Council intervention in the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone can be instructive, in particular because it contributed to the establishment of a first-ever UN emergency health mission. While this mission was not considered effective, Security C…
Why do youth participate in violence in Africa? A review of evidence
This paper systematically maps the field of scholarly works on the theme of youth and violent conflict in Africa. It reviews the evidentiary base of the nexus between youth and violent conflicts in Africa by interrogating the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations of the different explanations adduced for why and how youth participate in armed conflicts. It observes that the evidence base linking youth vulnerability and exclusion w…
Introduction: Reframing narratives of peace-building and state-building in Africa
This paper introduces the Special Issue that grew out of a research project at the African Leadership Centre, which was supported by the Canadian International Centre for Development Research (IDRC). Like the underpinning research, the papers in this volume engage with two aspects of the state-building and peace-building debate and foreground the theory of “conversation” as a useful lens through which to advance the pursuit of sustainable peace i…
Shifting ideas of sustainable peace towardsconversationin state-building
This article offers reflections on the meaning of peace and peace-building in Africa and proposes a reframing of the state-building problematic. It argues for a shift in analytical lens by providing alternative ways of looking at state-building in order to explore a different approach to peace-building. Thus, the paper re-centres the notion of conversation in the processes of building peace and state. This concept of conversation requires a shift…
Women's overlooked contribution to Rwanda's state-building conversations
This paper does not directly engage the state-formation, political settlement and state-building debates in Africa but it foregrounds the notion of conversation as the lens through which to examine Rwanda’s state-building history. In particular, it explores an overlooked perspective from Rwanda’s state-building trajectory by focusing on a particular class of actors – women – whose voices also contributed to inter-elite and elite-society state-bui…
Revisiting Governance: Extended Statehood in Africa and Beyond
This article sets the theme for this issue. Weberian understanding of statehood has been valid and dominant for 100 years. However, it no longer reflects the complex dynamics of the superstructure resting on the social contract. One must acknowledge the widening frame of social and political influence and take it into account to make true sense of decades of failure in attempted state-building. Africa provides the scene for this argument as origi…
Measuring Peace: ‘Beholders’ versus ‘Owners’ of Peace
Seen through the eyes of its ‘beholders’, Peace has many meanings and it is multidimensional in its manifestations. From multilevel sites—local, national, regional and global—beholders construct vi
Covid-19 responses and human rights in selected African countries
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for states to strike a delicate balance between implementing measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, and respecting the rights and dignity of the populace. Human rights organisations warned that COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as the use of digital surveillance to trace and track population movement and the introduction of emergency laws that extend the government’s power to lock down countries, i…
Revisiting Governance: Extended Statehood in Africa and Beyond
This article sets the theme for this issue. Weberian understanding of statehood has been valid and dominant for 100 years. However, it no longer reflects the complex dynamics of the superstructure resting on the social contract. One must acknowledge the widening frame of social and political influence and take it into account to make true sense of decades of failure in attempted state-building. Africa provides the scene for this argument as origi…
Africa
Go Tell the Crocodiles: Chasing Prosperity in MozambiqueRowan Moore Gerety. New York: The New Press, 2018. $26.95. 343 pp.Fighting for Peace in Somalia: A History and Analysis of the African Union Mission (AMISOM), 2007–2017Paul D. Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. £70.00. 366 pp.Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the HeadlinesNgozi Okonjo-Iweala. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2018. $29.95. 173 pp.Searching for Boko…
Africa
Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on TerrorHelen C. Epstein. New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2017. £10.99/$14.99. 262 pp.Congo’s Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle Since the Great African WarKris Berwouts. London: Zed Books, 2017. £16.99/$24.95. 193 pp.The Horn of Africa: State Formation and DecayChristopher Clapham. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2017. £17.99/$27.95. 224 pp.Understanding Zimbabwe: From Liberation to AuthoritarianismS…
The convergence and divergence of three pillars of influence in gender and security
This article explores the convergence between three pillars of influence – feminist security studies, civil society activism and policy decision-making – and its role in the adoption and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. It argues that these three pillars, individually and collectively, have made important contributions to the debate and action on the gender and security agenda, but that they remain organi…
Militancy and Violence in West Africa: Religion, Politics and Radicalisation
This volume provides a systematic and cross-regional analysis of radicalisation, militancy and violence in West Africa. Concern about terrorism in, or from, West Africa, has been recognised in academic research, and the adoption of militarised approaches to addressing it questioned. However, the basis for that questioning - the need to investigate factors such as the historical and socio-economic roots of militancy - is not developed, nor is it s…
Militancy and violence in West Africa: Reflecting on Radicalisation, Comparing Contexts and Evaluating Effectiveness of Preventive Policies
(2013). Militancy and violence in West Africa: reflecting on radicalisation, comparing contexts and evaluating effectiveness of preventive policies. Conflict, Security & Development: Vol. 13, Militancy and Violence in West Africa: Reflecting on Radicalisation and Comparing Contexts, pp. 117-125
Deep history and international security: Social conditions and competition, militancy and violence in West Africa
Concern about terrorism in, and from, West Africa has prompted both military responses and criticisms of these. Criticism has focused on ‘hegemonic’ international attention to the region, the inappropriateness of a military and a misplaced focus on religion, and specifically Islam, where a range of ethnic, social, economic and historical problems are said to have been the real factors incubating radicalisation and violence—although empirical evid…
Tributes to Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961–2009)
I am proud to say that I taught Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem at Bayero University Kano. Indeed, whenever I was in his company I always expected the familiar introduction: ‘”AB Zack”’ (as he liked to call
Ecowas and Civil Society Movements in West Africa
This article argues that the West African subregion has radically shifted its approach to security from a state-centred framework to one that now encompasses human security concerns. Civil society is now an active part of the regional security decision-making processes. While it has been difficult to transform local-level civil society engagement into a large-scale regional involvement, civil society engagement with the Economic Community of West…
United Kingdom-led Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone
The UK's work in reforming security institutions in Sierra Leone is widely held as representing an example of successful SSR. Basic capacity and public trust has been restored in politicized and debilitated police and military institutions. It provided much needed confidence to people who no longer had faith in their own security institutions, and it created the stable, secure environment in which SSR could take place. This article offers the per…
Democratizing security sector governance in West Africa: Trends and challenges
While other regions of Africa have had their share of crises, the challenge of meeting numerous security threats has been particularly arduous in West Africa. Nevertheless, there are unmistakable signs that, through its collective regional integration instrument, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the sub-region is beginning to awaken fully to the need to tackle its security crisis. This article makes two interrelated argumen…
Windows of opportunity for conflict prevention: Responding to regional conflict in West Africa1
This article charts the course of regional crisis in West Africa since 1999 and assesses the extent to which the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) succeeded in preventing an escalation of crisis in that sub‐region. It argues that although windows of opportunity existed for preventing the escalation of conflict and attention was sometimes paid to warning signs, the UN and ECOWAS had limited success larg…
Reforming security sector governance
As Ball's paper underscores, democratic governance of the security sector plays a crucial role in attaining a secure and peaceful environment in which states and peoples can seek prosperity. As par
Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts
(2000). Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts. International Peacekeeping: Vol. 7, Managing Armed Conflicts in the 21st Century, pp. 23-36
Peace and Justice in Africa: Post-Cold War Issues
Covid-19 responses and human rights in selected African countries
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for states to strike a delicate balance between implementing measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, and respecting the rights and dignity of the populace. Human rights organisations warned that COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as the use of digital surveillance to trace and track population movement and the introduction of emergency laws that extend the government’s power to lock down countries, i…
The convergence and divergence of three pillars of influence in gender and security
This article explores the convergence between three pillars of influence – feminist security studies, civil society activism and policy decision-making – and its role in the adoption and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. It argues that these three pillars, individually and collectively, have made important contributions to the debate and action on the gender and security agenda, but that they remain organi…
African 'Homemade' Peacekeeping Initiatives
The end of the Cold War altered the perspective of conflict resolution globally. One such alteration is the transformed nature of the tasks performed by the military in operations designed to control violent conflicts. Some of the most significant changes have occurred in Africa, where peacekeeping has escalated beyond traditionally accepted principle to include enforcement in a bid to control destructive internal conflicts (e.g., Liberia and Som…
Shifting ideas of sustainable peace towardsconversationin state-building
This article offers reflections on the meaning of peace and peace-building in Africa and proposes a reframing of the state-building problematic. It argues for a shift in analytical lens by providing alternative ways of looking at state-building in order to explore a different approach to peace-building. Thus, the paper re-centres the notion of conversation in the processes of building peace and state. This concept of conversation requires a shift…
Women's overlooked contribution to Rwanda's state-building conversations
This paper does not directly engage the state-formation, political settlement and state-building debates in Africa but it foregrounds the notion of conversation as the lens through which to examine Rwanda’s state-building history. In particular, it explores an overlooked perspective from Rwanda’s state-building trajectory by focusing on a particular class of actors – women – whose voices also contributed to inter-elite and elite-society state-bui…
Reforming security sector governance
As Ball's paper underscores, democratic governance of the security sector plays a crucial role in attaining a secure and peaceful environment in which states and peoples can seek prosperity. As par
Measuring Peace: ‘Beholders’ versus ‘Owners’ of Peace
Seen through the eyes of its ‘beholders’, Peace has many meanings and it is multidimensional in its manifestations. From multilevel sites—local, national, regional and global—beholders construct vi
United Kingdom-led Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone
The UK's work in reforming security institutions in Sierra Leone is widely held as representing an example of successful SSR. Basic capacity and public trust has been restored in politicized and debilitated police and military institutions. It provided much needed confidence to people who no longer had faith in their own security institutions, and it created the stable, secure environment in which SSR could take place. This article offers the per…
Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts
(2000). Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts. International Peacekeeping: Vol. 7, Managing Armed Conflicts in the 21st Century, pp. 23-36
Humanitarian intervention and human rights: The contradictions in Ecomog
To the residents of the target community, humanitarian intervention connotes an act of benevolence, which will ease their suffering and ensure the protection of human rights. However, such interventions and the eventual conduct of troops, no matter how well meaning, rarely produce this outcome. Liberia and Somalia are just two examples. This article, through an analysis of the ECOMOG intervention in Liberia, examines the human rights issues broug…
UN co‐operation with regional organizations in peacekeeping: The experience of Ecomog and Unomil in Liberia
The burden placed on the UN in the aftermath of the Cold War by the numerous intrastate conflicts around the globe has increased the demand for co‐operation with regional organizations. The Liberian civil war presented an opportunity for the UN to work together with a regional peacekeeping force in a joint operation, under the provisions of one agreement. The Security Council described this as ‘the first peacekeeping mission undertaken by the Uni…
Democratizing security sector governance in West Africa: Trends and challenges
While other regions of Africa have had their share of crises, the challenge of meeting numerous security threats has been particularly arduous in West Africa. Nevertheless, there are unmistakable signs that, through its collective regional integration instrument, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the sub-region is beginning to awaken fully to the need to tackle its security crisis. This article makes two interrelated argumen…
Ecowas and Civil Society Movements in West Africa
This article argues that the West African subregion has radically shifted its approach to security from a state-centred framework to one that now encompasses human security concerns. Civil society is now an active part of the regional security decision-making processes. While it has been difficult to transform local-level civil society engagement into a large-scale regional involvement, civil society engagement with the Economic Community of West…
Windows of opportunity for conflict prevention: Responding to regional conflict in West Africa1
This article charts the course of regional crisis in West Africa since 1999 and assesses the extent to which the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) succeeded in preventing an escalation of crisis in that sub‐region. It argues that although windows of opportunity existed for preventing the escalation of conflict and attention was sometimes paid to warning signs, the UN and ECOWAS had limited success larg…
UN co‐operation with regional organizations in peacekeeping: The experience of Ecomog and Unomil in Liberia
The burden placed on the UN in the aftermath of the Cold War by the numerous intrastate conflicts around the globe has increased the demand for co‐operation with regional organizations. The Liberian civil war presented an opportunity for the UN to work together with a regional peacekeeping force in a joint operation, under the provisions of one agreement. The Security Council described this as ‘the first peacekeeping mission undertaken by the Uni…
African 'Homemade' Peacekeeping Initiatives
The end of the Cold War altered the perspective of conflict resolution globally. One such alteration is the transformed nature of the tasks performed by the military in operations designed to control violent conflicts. Some of the most significant changes have occurred in Africa, where peacekeeping has escalated beyond traditionally accepted principle to include enforcement in a bid to control destructive internal conflicts (e.g., Liberia and Som…
Humanitarian intervention and human rights: The contradictions in Ecomog
To the residents of the target community, humanitarian intervention connotes an act of benevolence, which will ease their suffering and ensure the protection of human rights. However, such interventions and the eventual conduct of troops, no matter how well meaning, rarely produce this outcome. Liberia and Somalia are just two examples. This article, through an analysis of the ECOMOG intervention in Liberia, examines the human rights issues broug…
Regional security and the challenges of democratisation in Africa: The case of Ecowas and Sadc
In recent years, African leaders have aggressively sought to strengthen their regional security structures while simultaneously attempting to democratise. Although they recognise that African regional organisations will need to assume a greater role in tackling Africa's security problems, the challenges posed by on‐going democratisation efforts have had a visible impact on the effectiveness of some regional organisations. This article examines th…
Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts
(2000). Economic fragility and political fluidity: Explaining natural resources and conflicts. International Peacekeeping: Vol. 7, Managing Armed Conflicts in the 21st Century, pp. 23-36
Peace and Justice in Africa: Post-Cold War Issues
Windows of opportunity for conflict prevention: Responding to regional conflict in West Africa1
This article charts the course of regional crisis in West Africa since 1999 and assesses the extent to which the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) succeeded in preventing an escalation of crisis in that sub‐region. It argues that although windows of opportunity existed for preventing the escalation of conflict and attention was sometimes paid to warning signs, the UN and ECOWAS had limited success larg…
Reforming security sector governance
As Ball's paper underscores, democratic governance of the security sector plays a crucial role in attaining a secure and peaceful environment in which states and peoples can seek prosperity. As par
Democratizing security sector governance in West Africa: Trends and challenges
While other regions of Africa have had their share of crises, the challenge of meeting numerous security threats has been particularly arduous in West Africa. Nevertheless, there are unmistakable signs that, through its collective regional integration instrument, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the sub-region is beginning to awaken fully to the need to tackle its security crisis. This article makes two interrelated argumen…
United Kingdom-led Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone
The UK's work in reforming security institutions in Sierra Leone is widely held as representing an example of successful SSR. Basic capacity and public trust has been restored in politicized and debilitated police and military institutions. It provided much needed confidence to people who no longer had faith in their own security institutions, and it created the stable, secure environment in which SSR could take place. This article offers the per…
Tributes to Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961–2009)
I am proud to say that I taught Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem at Bayero University Kano. Indeed, whenever I was in his company I always expected the familiar introduction: ‘”AB Zack”’ (as he liked to call
Ecowas and Civil Society Movements in West Africa
This article argues that the West African subregion has radically shifted its approach to security from a state-centred framework to one that now encompasses human security concerns. Civil society is now an active part of the regional security decision-making processes. While it has been difficult to transform local-level civil society engagement into a large-scale regional involvement, civil society engagement with the Economic Community of West…
Militancy and Violence in West Africa: Religion, Politics and Radicalisation
This volume provides a systematic and cross-regional analysis of radicalisation, militancy and violence in West Africa. Concern about terrorism in, or from, West Africa, has been recognised in academic research, and the adoption of militarised approaches to addressing it questioned. However, the basis for that questioning - the need to investigate factors such as the historical and socio-economic roots of militancy - is not developed, nor is it s…
Militancy and violence in West Africa: Reflecting on Radicalisation, Comparing Contexts and Evaluating Effectiveness of Preventive Policies
(2013). Militancy and violence in West Africa: reflecting on radicalisation, comparing contexts and evaluating effectiveness of preventive policies. Conflict, Security & Development: Vol. 13, Militancy and Violence in West Africa: Reflecting on Radicalisation and Comparing Contexts, pp. 117-125
Deep history and international security: Social conditions and competition, militancy and violence in West Africa
Concern about terrorism in, and from, West Africa has prompted both military responses and criticisms of these. Criticism has focused on ‘hegemonic’ international attention to the region, the inappropriateness of a military and a misplaced focus on religion, and specifically Islam, where a range of ethnic, social, economic and historical problems are said to have been the real factors incubating radicalisation and violence—although empirical evid…
The convergence and divergence of three pillars of influence in gender and security
This article explores the convergence between three pillars of influence – feminist security studies, civil society activism and policy decision-making – and its role in the adoption and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. It argues that these three pillars, individually and collectively, have made important contributions to the debate and action on the gender and security agenda, but that they remain organi…
Africa
Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on TerrorHelen C. Epstein. New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2017. £10.99/$14.99. 262 pp.Congo’s Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle Since the Great African WarKris Berwouts. London: Zed Books, 2017. £16.99/$24.95. 193 pp.The Horn of Africa: State Formation and DecayChristopher Clapham. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2017. £17.99/$27.95. 224 pp.Understanding Zimbabwe: From Liberation to AuthoritarianismS…
Africa
Go Tell the Crocodiles: Chasing Prosperity in MozambiqueRowan Moore Gerety. New York: The New Press, 2018. $26.95. 343 pp.Fighting for Peace in Somalia: A History and Analysis of the African Union Mission (AMISOM), 2007–2017Paul D. Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. £70.00. 366 pp.Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the HeadlinesNgozi Okonjo-Iweala. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2018. $29.95. 173 pp.Searching for Boko…
Revisiting Governance: Extended Statehood in Africa and Beyond
This article sets the theme for this issue. Weberian understanding of statehood has been valid and dominant for 100 years. However, it no longer reflects the complex dynamics of the superstructure resting on the social contract. One must acknowledge the widening frame of social and political influence and take it into account to make true sense of decades of failure in attempted state-building. Africa provides the scene for this argument as origi…
Measuring Peace: ‘Beholders’ versus ‘Owners’ of Peace
Seen through the eyes of its ‘beholders’, Peace has many meanings and it is multidimensional in its manifestations. From multilevel sites—local, national, regional and global—beholders construct vi
Covid-19 responses and human rights in selected African countries
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for states to strike a delicate balance between implementing measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, and respecting the rights and dignity of the populace. Human rights organisations warned that COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as the use of digital surveillance to trace and track population movement and the introduction of emergency laws that extend the government’s power to lock down countries, i…
Revisiting Governance: Extended Statehood in Africa and Beyond
This article sets the theme for this issue. Weberian understanding of statehood has been valid and dominant for 100 years. However, it no longer reflects the complex dynamics of the superstructure resting on the social contract. One must acknowledge the widening frame of social and political influence and take it into account to make true sense of decades of failure in attempted state-building. Africa provides the scene for this argument as origi…
Why do youth participate in violence in Africa? A review of evidence
This paper systematically maps the field of scholarly works on the theme of youth and violent conflict in Africa. It reviews the evidentiary base of the nexus between youth and violent conflicts in Africa by interrogating the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations of the different explanations adduced for why and how youth participate in armed conflicts. It observes that the evidence base linking youth vulnerability and exclusion w…
Introduction: Reframing narratives of peace-building and state-building in Africa
This paper introduces the Special Issue that grew out of a research project at the African Leadership Centre, which was supported by the Canadian International Centre for Development Research (IDRC). Like the underpinning research, the papers in this volume engage with two aspects of the state-building and peace-building debate and foreground the theory of “conversation” as a useful lens through which to advance the pursuit of sustainable peace i…
Shifting ideas of sustainable peace towardsconversationin state-building
This article offers reflections on the meaning of peace and peace-building in Africa and proposes a reframing of the state-building problematic. It argues for a shift in analytical lens by providing alternative ways of looking at state-building in order to explore a different approach to peace-building. Thus, the paper re-centres the notion of conversation in the processes of building peace and state. This concept of conversation requires a shift…
Political science (29 works) · Law (22 works) · Politics (21 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (12 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (11 works) · Public Administration (10 works)