Researching the Inner Life of the African Peace and Security Architecture: APSA Inside-Out

Abstract

This edited volume offers new insights into the inner life of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and introduces scholars of African security dynamics to innovative epistemological, conceptual and methodological approaches. Based on intellectual openness and an interest in transdisciplinary perspectives, the volume challenges existing orthodoxies, poses new questions and opens a discussion on actual research practice. Drawing on Global Studies and critical International Studies perspectives, the authors follow inductive approaches and let the empirical data enrich their theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools. In this endeavor they focus on actors, practices and narratives involved in African Peace and Security and move beyond the often Western-centric premises of research carried out within rigid disciplinary boundaries.

Contributors are Michael Aeby, Yvonne Akpasom, Katharina P.W. Döring, Ulf Engel, Fana Gebresenbet Erda, Linnéa Gelot, Amandine Gnanguênon, Toni Haastrup, Jens Herpolsheimer, Alin Hilowle, Jamie Pring, Lilian Seffer, Thomas Kwasi Tieku, Antonia Witt, Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu.

Biographical Notes

Katharina P.W. Döring (Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden)

Katharina P.W. Döring is a researcher at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Södertörn University, Stockholm. She is part of the CBEES research project “Continentalism, Geopolitics, and the idea of ‘big-space’ political formations in comparative historical perspective”. From 2016 to 2019, she was part of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199) “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” at Leipzig University, where she explored the value of a space-sensitive perspective for understanding the responses of the African Union and ECWAS towards the conflicts in Mali and the Sahel since 2012. She finished her PhD thesis titled “Making room for war. The spatialization of African security politics in the quest for African-led military deployment” in June 2019.

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).

Linnéa Gelot (Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sandöverken, Sweden)

Linnéa Gelot is senior researcher at FBA. At the moment, she is working on a research project called “African Union Waging Peace”. Linnéa is an associate professor in peace and development studies, she was previously employed as senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and she holds a PhD from Aberystwyth University. In her research, she has explored themes such as protection of civilians and conflict management cooperation between the UN Security Council and regional organizations, such as the African Union. She has carried out field studies, professional trainings and assessments in Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Jens Herpolsheimer (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Jens Herpolsheimer studied African Studies in Leipzig, Bordeaux, and Lisbon. Subsequently, continuing research initiated during his master’s, he worked on cooperation dynamics at the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). Since 2016, he is a researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199) “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition”, at Leipzig University. In this context, he has completed his PhD, focusing on intervention practices of African regional organizations and their spatializing effects. Since January 2020, Jens Herpolsheimer is a postdoctoral researcher at the SFB 1199, studying the practices of inter-regionalism between different actors at African regional organizations and the European Union. These issues reflect his more general research interests, among other things, including the politics and practices of peace and security in Africa, Lusophony, and comparative regionalism.