Knowledge Production by African Peace and Security Think Tanks

Abstract

Arguably, African peace and security think tanks (APSTTs) play an important role in informing governments and other audiences about ongoing dynamics in this field as well as in providing guidance on critical policy choices. Yet, exactly what they are doing, what kind of knowledge they are producing, and how this knowledge relates to more general debates on African peace and security issues have not yet been part of academic debates. This working paper offers preliminary insights from the study about the nature of six APSTTs, their key “products”, the knowledge order they are contributing to, and their relative position in this field of knowledge as compared to global knowledge production on peace and security in Africa. Finally, the working paper is interested in the political economy of knowledge production by APSTTs.

Biographical Note

Ulf Engel (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Ulf Engel is professor of ‘Politics in Africa’ at the Institute of African Studies at Leipzig University. He is also a visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and a professor extraordinary in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).