This essay focuses on an issue related to the Ghanaian party system and the consolidation of democracy: the transition of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from a personalistic party under the stranglehold…
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Ghana's 2012 Elections
The Role of the Security Sector in Ghana’s Democracy: A Case Study of the December 2012 Elections
by Ernest Ansah Lartey and Kwesi Aning
While many attribute the generally peaceful nature of elections to the efficiency of the Ghanaian Electoral Commission (EC), it is important to emphasize that other state institutions, such as the security forces, have played significant roles in ensuring the consolidation of democracy in the country. This paper provides some insights into the specific roles played by the security forces during the December 2012 elections in Ghana.
Conflict
Recurrent Crisis in the Eastern DRC: Petty Imperialism and Reconceptualizing the Peace Process
by Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo
The eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the richest regions in the country, with diverse mineral deposits and vast arable lands. Even more than the rest of the country, however, this region has been ravaged by widespread war, sexual brutality against girls and women, theft of natural resources, and ongoing […]
Essays
Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: The Importance of Documentation in Postwar Education and Recon…
Conflict
Congolese Crisis and Demographic Problems in the African Great Lakes
by Guy Aundu Matsanza
The frequent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is part of a series of interlinked, complex conflicts encompassing the African Great Lakes region. The DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda all appear to be connected by geographical and historical factors and the legacies of decades of conflict interspersed by episodes of peace. Conflict in […]
Essays
From Ethnic Violence to Seeds of Peace: Pastoralists, Youth, and Intercommunity Peacebuilding in Northwestern Kenya
by Willis Okumu
Introduction Northwestern Kenya has been a theatre of violent conflict pitting the Pokot, Samburu, and Turkana communities against one another in a fierce and deadly competition. This has been catalyzed by diminishing pasture and water resources, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, political incitement, disputes over land and ethnic boundaries, the absence of […]
Essays
Prospects for Peacebuilding in Eastern Congo?
by Morten Bøås
After controlling Goma for 11 days, M23 has now left the city. This is, unfortunately, not the end of the conflict. Not only must a more lasting settlement be reached, but what happened when the Congolese army (FARDC) ran away and the world’s largest peacekeeping force, the United Nations Organization Stabilizing Mission in the Democratic […]
Book Reviews
I Did It to Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone, by Catherine E. Bolten
by Danny Hoffman
Sierra Leone’s was a complicated war. One of the first post-Cold War conflicts, and seemingly one of the more intractable and bizarre, there is still no consensus explanation for what happened in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia throughout the 1990s. Scholars from political science, anthropology, history, psychology, and sociology have looked to this small West […]
