Mediating Solutions to Territorial Civil Wars in Africa: Norms, Interests, and Major Power Leverage

Elizabeth Schmidt's critical review of foreign political and military intervention in the African continent, Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility and the War on Terror, is a must read. In using the designation "foreign," the author is referring to actors who intervene in the affairs of a specific sovereign state who are not formally part of that state. This includes other states within and beyond the continent, multilateral organizations, and a variety of non-state actors such as rebel, irridentist, and mercenary groups and terrorist/extremist organizations/movements. While her focus is on political and military intervention, Schmidt describes and explains these actions through the complementary lenses of history and critical political economy.Put simply, post-Cold War intervention in the continent represents both continuity and change. Indeed, the story Schmidt tells is only too well known: Africa continues to be a global battleground for hearts, minds, and resources. The results of these struggles, though played out in very different locations, are disappointingly similar: foreign intervention does more harm than good, largely because the motives are selfish, despite claims to the contrary. Across thirteen chapters, Schmidt shows how and why foreign political and military intervention makes things worse for the average citizen. This, too, is nothing new to the student of Africa. Why, then, is this book a "must read"? In my view, it is because the author manages to bring together a massive amount of information across a highly diverse socioeconomic and political landscape, organize it around a very persuasive set of propositions, and present it in a highly readable and compelling way. The concise "suggested reading" essays at the end of each chapter are worth the price of purchase alone.This book, therefore, will appeal to a very wide audience, from the lay person looking for a sensible way into the complex question of why so much of the African continent seems always to be in upheaval, to regional experts interested in comparative studies and specialists seeking a handy one-stop

Elizabeth Schmidt. Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility and the War on Terror. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2018. xxiv + 462 pp. Photographs. Maps. Glossary. Suggested Readings. Index. $36.95. Paper. ISBN: 978-0896803213.

Swatuk¹

2022

Michael Amoah. The New Pan-Africanism: Globalism and the Nation State in Africa. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2019. List of Maps. List of Acronyms. Notes. Bibliography. $100.00. Cloth. ISBN: 978-1784533311.

Clark¹

2021

The New Pan-Africanism: Globalism and the Nation State in Africa by Michael Amoah examines the responses of the African community to a selection of violent conflicts that arose on the continent between 2010 and 2018. The author suggests that most conflicts in this period resulted from the attempts of national leaders to remain in power beyond their constitutionally mandated terms. This pattern has led political opposition forces to engage in mass demonstrations or armed resistance. In the era of the "New Pan-Africanism," either African sub-regional organizations or the African Union (AU) have intervened diplomatically or militarily in many of these conflicts. The author's main contention is that the African responses "do not follow a particular script. Rather, Africa has responded on a case-by-case basis in whatever manner is deemed convenient or practicable in the circumstances…" (ix). The author is particularly interested in how African actors have coordinated with extracontinental forces, notably the United Nations (UN), but also unilateral actors such as France, in responding to African political crises.The book includes an examination of eight crises of leadership that unfolded in Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Rwanda, and South Sudan after 2010. Each chapter-length case study systematically provides a short political background, a description of the leadership crisis, an account of the resulting conflict, and finally an account of the African response. Short discussions of "International Political Economy" and "Security Challenges" follow. Oddly, the chapters are organized alphabetically by the country name, rather than chronologically or by the level or scope of African response to the internal crises. The strength of this book lies in strong empirical work done in these chapters, which provide rich descriptions of the various crises and the responses of African organizations to them. The author's rationale for the selection of cases, however, is not clear. Amoah briefly reviews a larger set of nineteen cases of leadership turnover in the book's Introduction. He seems to have selected the cases that involved the

Enrique Ubieta Gomez. Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle against Ebola in West Africa. New York: Pathfinder, 2019. Translated from Spanish by Catriona Goss. 250 pp. Maps. Photos. References. Index. $17.00. Paper. ISBN: 978-1-60488-114-1.

Djukpen¹

2021

Infectious diseases at pandemic level have had a devastating impact on humanity for many centuries. Therefore, understanding and managing the vectors and factors that propagate these diseases is paramount to human survival. Red Zone: Cuba and the battle against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta Gomez represents one effort to understand the role of a nation-state and front-line workers in handling the Ebola crisis. The lessons of cooperation and determination presented in this book can be used in future pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.The book highlights the roles of the Cuban medical corps (healthcare workers) from Cuba in combating Ebola in West Africa. In addition to discussing their activities in West Africa, the author draws attention to other locations such as South America, Asia, and Southern Africa, where they also responded to disasters. Further, the author reviews the cooperation among medical personnel from different countries that are hitherto geo-political foes. For example, the United States and Cuba had no diplomatic alliance at the time of the Ebola missions, yet healthcare workers put aside national political bickering and worked unitedly to save lives in the "Ebola battlefield" in West Africa. The author presents many glorious moments that the political world can learn from, to help move humanity to a better place. When humans put their political, social, and cultural differences aside, they can achieve higher goals beneficial to all.The author examines a plethora of factors that exacerbated the Ebola crisis, that future students of public health and policy making could study with reference to combatting pandemics. Such factors include effective cultural and communication methods, along with allaying doubts, misinformation, and uncertainties about the disease. An understanding of these factors and a rejection of misinformation would help in future efforts to fight pandemics.The book discusses several "specific" reasons for the Ebola outbreak in the section "Ebola: Doubts and Certainties" (187-205). As the author argues, "… many of these reasons are macabre (suspicious) and not credible" (189). For example, it was alleged that the Ebola outbreak was a result of military