India is on the verge of becoming a great power and the swing state in the international system. As a large, multiethnic, economically powerful, non-Western democracy, it will play a key role in the great struggles of the coming years. Washington has recognized the potential of a U.S.-Indian alliance, but translating that potential into reality will require engaging India on its own terms.
Border Securitisation and Politics of State Policy in Nigeria, 2014–2017
This article examines the politics of public policies characterised by increased securitisation of Nigeria’s national boundary from 2014 to 2017. While the regulation appears on paper to discourage transborder crime, capital outflow and sustain a favourable balance of payment, the existing armoury of West African border literature argues otherwise. What is new in the transborder dynamics of West Africa? What informs government’s border policies in Nigeria? In answering these questions, this study provides a template for a reassessment of the gap between borderlands theory and policy in West Africa. The approach is comparative based on the critical analysis of oral interviews, government trade records, newspaper reports and the extant literature. The article provides a platform for rethinking of the nexus between governance and development in West Africa from the securitisation and neo-patrimonial perspectives. It concludes that effective border management in Nigeria is set aback by misguided and dysfunctional elitist-centred regulations that are devoid of the realities on the ground.
Nigeria’s foreign policy and transnational security challenges in West Africa
This article explores how Nigeria’s foreign policy has responded to transnational security challenges in West Africa. It engages in a conceptual overview of the discourse on transnational security and links this with a discussion of Nigeria’s foreign policy towards West Africa. Of note is Nigeria’s pursuit of a leadership role in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in its quest for security, economic integration and development. Several questions are posed: What do Nigerian policymakers consider to be the most significant transnational threats in West Africa? How and through what legitimate policies and instruments do they respond to such threats? How important is ECOWAS to Nigeria’s attempt to respond to transnational threats? And how effective have Nigeria’s attempts to influence the ECOWAS agenda in this regard been? Although ECOWAS has remained central to Nigeria’s responses to transnational security threats in the subregion, the country has not been able to match its rhetoric on addressing transnational security threats with far-reaching concrete achievements. It is suggested that social transformation of Nigeria’s current foreign policy (that is, to one focused and committed to putting people at its centre) and a change in the policies of dominant global powers towards West Africa would enhance human emancipation and eliminate the numerous insecurities confronting the peoples of the subregion.
Women, Gender and Development in Africa
Gender denotes the social prescriptions associated with biological sex in regard to roles, behaviour, appearance, cognition, emotions, and so on. Social relations of gender or gender relations encompass all relationships in which gender subjectivities play a role, including those among people, and between people and the institutions, systems, and processes of development. The chapter describes three features of gender relations that are generally consistent across societies – gender ideologies and myths; gendered division of labor; and unequal power relationships – and discusses their implications for development. The chapter further explains the centrality of gender to the development enterprise and discusses various approaches to integrating gender analysis in development processes.
Finding Peace in Uncertain Times: South Sudan and the Revitalised Peace Process
South Sudan’s latest peace deal has been lauded as a milestone in the country’s long
road to peace and stability. The Revitalised Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in
South Sudan (R-ARCSS) outlines power-sharing arrangements between rivals President
Salva Kiir and main rebel/opposition leader Riek Machar, and provides a blueprint for a
sustainable peace and democratic transition. Despite this welcome development, South
Sudan’s revitalised peace process has been marred by delays, uncertainty, divisions and
the regionalisation of the conflict. As a result, key issues relating to state boundaries and
security arrangements remain unresolved, leaving the primary drivers of the conflict
untouched. The civil war in South Sudan – which broke out in 2013 – has cost an estimated
400 000 lives, displaced millions and plunged the nascent country into a state of
deprivation. South Sudan and its people must urgently facilitate a return to peace, stability,
reconciliation and unity. This paper contextualises the agreement, examines its contents
and presents the key enablers of and barriers to the success of the revitalised peace process.