African Conflicts and Informal Power

Big Men and Networks
Herausgeber: Utas, Mats

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent's conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Academic
• Seitenzahl: 264
• Erscheinungstermin: 8. März 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 155mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 522g
• ISBN-13: 9781848138834
• ISBN-10: 1848138830
• Artikelnr.: 34676465

Autorenporträt

Mats Utas is a senior lecturer at Uppsala University, and formerly a senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: Bigmanity and network governance in African conflicts - By
Mats Utas Part 1: Country case studies 1. Informal political structures,
resources and the Ugandan army; military entrepreneurialism in the
Ugandan-Congolese borderland - Koen Vlassenroot and Sandrine Perot 2. Big
Man Business in the Borderland of Sierra Leone - Maya Mynster Christensen
3. The politics of impersonation: Corps habillés, Nouchis, and subaltern
Bigmanity in Côte d'Ivoire - Karel Arnaut 4. Demobilized or remobilized?
Liberia's remaining rebel structures in post-war security settings - Mariam
Persson 5. 'Castles in the sand': Informal networks and power brokers in
the Northern Mali periphery - Morten Böås Part 2: Thematic case studies 6.
Critical states and cocaine connections - By Henrik Vigh 7. African Big Men
and international criminal justice: the case of Sierra Leone - By Gerhard
Anders 8. Big Man bargaining in African conflicts - By Ilmari Käihkö 9.
Intermediaries of peace or agents of war: the role of ex-midlevel
commanders in Big Man networks - By Anders Themnér 10. The Big Men
commanding conflict resources in Africa: the DRC case - By Ruben de Koning