Ever since the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, Western states
have identified security problems in Sub-Saharan Africa no longer as
purely regional issues, but as international challenges as well. As a
result, the EU and its member states and the USA have considerably
expanded their attempts to tackle security-related challenges in Africa.
Focus has been placed on the prevention and resolution of conflict,
political institution and good governance reforms, state building, and
combating terrorism.
The results of these policies have often failed to meet
expectations. In some situations, the objectives have proven to be too
ambitious, while in others, Western policies have suffered from
shortcomings of their own making. An additional factor, however, is
often paid insufficient attention: the attitudes and behaviour of the
very governments and political elites that rule weak states. These
actors, indiscriminately called »partners« because Western actors rely
on their cooperation, often do not share the interests of their external
supporters.
This report examines how the governments of externally dependent crisis
states engage with Western policy prescriptions. Which strategies do
local elites employ to shape Western policies in an effort to make them
compatible with their own political interests? Three examples of Western
efforts to reform fragile states in Africa are presented. They concern
fairly typical Western security policies and how these are
»successfully« handled by ruling elites in African states: crisis and
conflict prevention in Chad, security sector reform in DR Congo, and
counter-terrorism in Uganda. The report shows how Western policies
towards Africa's crisis-ridden states run the risk of being used as
instruments of local government elites. They can fail in their
objectives (as in Congo and Chad) or have unexpected consequences, which
present new problems such as authoritarian tendencies and increased
levels of corruption (as in Uganda). The fact that such states are
politically and economically dependent on Western donors does not foster
political change if local elites see it as a threat to their power.
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