Doctoral Degrees (International and Public Affairs)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7221

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African solutions to African problems: assessing the African Union's application of endogenous conflict resolution approaches.
Ani, Ndubuisi Christian.; Mtshali, Khondlo Phillip Thabo.
This dissertation advances the discourse on Africa’s substantive values and priorities in conflict resolution. This is done by exploring the principles of ‘African solutions to African problems’, particularly in conflict resolution, and the implications of the identified ‘African solutions’ for the African Union’s conflict resolution efforts. The thesis is premised on the background that the maxim ‘African solutions to African problems’ was developed in the context of growing misgivings about the reliability, motive and efficiency of external interventions in Africa. This is coupled with the belief among African thinkers and politicians that the lasting solutions to Africa’s challenges can only be secured by African-oriented solutions. However, there have been inadequate explorations of what constitutes African solutions and its influence on Pan-African conflict resolution interventions. Using a constructivist framework and a qualitative methodology with reliance on interview data from African peace and security experts as well as literary discourses on African indigenous conflict resolution, this dissertation explores the substantive value of the maxim ‘African solutions to African problems’ and the implications for the interventionist outlook employed by the African Union. The research employs the case study of the African Union’s intervention in Somalia to assess the achievements, challenges and prospects in the application of African solutions. The findings of the dissertation highlights that ‘African solutions’ in conflict resolution does not refer to unique elements. Rather they refer to Africa’s prioritized values in conflict resolution that may be in consonant or discordant with those of other geopolitical regions, but significant enough to advance self-determination, local ownership and the quest for sustainable solutions in Africa. Although it emerged from the misgivings about external impositions and interventions in Africa, the maxim ‘African Solutions to African problems’ indicts African actors for their failure to exhibit appropriate agency in terms of advancing context-sensitive solutions to the continent’s challenges. In line with the theoretical framework of constructivism which argues that the international system is influenced by prevailing ideas, the ideals of African solutions obliges Africa to critic and enhance its values and priorities, and negotiate them within the prevailing theory and practice of conflict resolution without being constrained by the dictates and approaches of dominant powers. Keywords: Pan-Africanism; Constructivism; African Union; Indigenous conflict resolution; African solutions to African problems; African Peace and Security Architecture; Identity.
The nexus between the United Nations Security Council reform and peacebuilding in Africa.
(2015) Ekwealor, Chinedu Thomas.; Mtshali, Khondlo Phillip Thabo.; Maeresera, Sadiki.
The nexus between the United Nations Security Council reform and peacebuilding in Africa is underpinned by the recognition that the Security Council is the supreme organ of the UN; and its reform saga is a conundrum to Africa’s peacebuilding and security praxis. In assortment of ways, this study observes that the Council is created in atmospheres of major realpolitik and has unrepentantly deprived the African continent for 70 seventy years, of meaningful contribution. As the harbinger for global peace and security, the Council lacks geographic representativity and is bias towards Africa’s real peace which has fanned insecurity paradigm in the continent. The study recognises that African inclusion into the permanent chambers of the Council will entrench Africa’s role for global security and armistice. The African exclusion matrix is a clearly-thought-out strategy of the imperial forces in the Permanent Five (P5) which has processed economic deprivation - making the continent perpetually dependent on imperial powers, and politically marginalised - keeping the same at the periphery of the pot of global politics since 1945. In the current global community, peace in Africa is a call of worldwide significance due largely to the observation that, conflicts in Africa accounts for over calculated 70% of world conflicts. Conflicts destroy the pillars for peace and terminate Africa’s interest to succeed in containing insecurity regime in the region and elsewhere. Conversely, lack of Council’s restructuring has reinforced insecurity regime, and exacerbated the dependency syndrome in the thinking-faculty of African leaders. Actually, some African nations are with necessary capabilities to become permanent members of the Security Council, but US and allies are against African inclusion on the altar of maintaining the status quo and retaining the exclusive core for a realist outlook that, the League of Nations and United Nations are children of World Wars I and II respectively. However, the study among other things learnt that dependency on external actors and marginalisation of Africa may continue until Africa speaks one word with one voice. That is, to demand permanent seat with veto or simultaneously withdraws membership from the UN through the AU’s common front. The study, essentially, extended the frontiers of existing knowledge and expanded the horizons of facts on the Security Council reform, and peacebuilding in Africa.
Paradiplomacy in South Africa: the role of interest and identity in the international relations of KwaZulu-Natal province.
(2018) Magam, Nolubabalo Patricia Dawn.; Mtshali, Khondlo Phillip Thabo.
This study offered an analysis of the importance of international relations activities undertaken by sub-national governments in South Africa, with a specific reference to the province of KwaZulu-Natal. These activities were conceptualised as paradiplomacy. The goal of the study was to advance the notion of paradiplomacy and explore how identity and interest facilitate paradiplomacy. The study explored this phenomenon from the context of Constructivism as a theory, highlighting the role of interests and identity in paradiplomacy. Positing a reciprocal relation between identity and interests, Constructivism argues that identities and interests shape and are shaped by foreign policy of a particular political entity. This was a qualitative, single-case study which relied on primary and secondary data.. Semi-structured interviews with key informants from the national government, provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal, external partners and academics, were used to gather empirical data. In addition to that, official government reports, international agreements and MOUs were analysed to augment the empirical data. In addition, the works of leading scholars in paradiplomacy such as Geldenhuys and Nganje (in South Africa) and Kuznetsov, Keating,Lecours,amongst others were invaluable sources of secondary data in this study. The study contributed to the growing body of literature on paradiplomay by providing analytical insight into (i) What is the legal framework for paradiplomacy in South Africa; (ii) What is the role of interest and identity in paradiplomatic activities of KwaZulu-Natal and (iii) How has paradiplomacy affected development in the province? Although subnational governments engage in international relations, primarily, for developing their local economies, they also advance the national agenda. In the case of South Africa, paradiplomacy is a reflection of the national government’s foreign policy agenda. The study showed how KwaZulu-Natal’s identities and interests are shaped by the broader and historical South African context. The study demonstrated how KwaZulu-Natal’s paradiplomatic activities are influenced by interests and identities. In addition, the study also explored the existence of multiple identities and interests, which are as a result of social and corporate identities. The findings revealed that paradiplomatic activities in the KwaZulu-Natal advance the provincial development strategy. The specific areas of cooperation are development-oriented and address development challenges the province is faced with. The study concluded by recommending that the legal framework of paradiplomacy be explicit in the constitution, to ensure that subnational governments work within a clear and explicit constitutional framework.

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (International and Public Affairs) by Author "Mtshali, Khondlo Phillip Thabo."