Disengagement from Southwest Africa


Book Description

Gorbachev's new thinking on superpower relations assumes that struggle between two opposing world systems no longer characterizes the present era. This second volume in the East-South Relations series explores the implications of Gorbachev's new thinking for regional conflicts. Because these conflicts jeopardize tranquil relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, they are perceived as contrary to the new spirit of global cooperation. This volume suggests that the accords on Southwest Africa may illustrate how the superpowers will resolve conflict, and shows how smaller powers may now have new roles cast for them by the superpowers. In 1975, Soviet-Cuban assistance to the Leninist-oriented Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was the first extensive Soviet-allied military intervention in the Third World. While the Soviet-backed Cubans propped up the MPLA, the South Africans intervened, on a smaller scale, in support of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) under Jonas Savimbi. After 1985 UNITA began receiving United States support, and a military stalemate ensued. The contributors to this volume analyse how the Soviet Union and the United States used this stalemate to move the MPLA, Cuba and South Africa to settle not only their differences, but also the vexing question of the Independence of Namibia. Central issues explored are how and why South Africa and Cuba got into the Angolan arena, why they stayed so long, and why they saw fit to get out. While the authors differ on the forces at work, their debate is itself enlightening, and offers valuable insights into the policy options of regional powers. The contributors also review further steps, beyond military disengagement, needed to finally resolve the Angolan civil war, and ensure regional stability. They assess the potential for breakdown of the accords, and the likely consequences should this occur. Disengagement from Southwest Africa will interest policymakers and researchers concerned with developments in southern Africa and Cuba, and with relations between the superpowers.




Angola


Book Description

This study is the first comprehensive assessment of warfare in Angola to cover all three phases of the nation's modern history: the anti-colonial struggle, the Cold War phase, and the post-Cold War era. It also covers, in detail, the final phase of warfare in Angola, culminating in Jonas Savimbi's death and the signing of the Luena Accord




The Botswana Defense Force in the Struggle for an African Environment


Book Description

The book describes how Botswana's leaders effectively employed the instruments of power at their disposal, portraying a state that works. It argues that Africans are contributing meaningfully to emerging global thinking on security and urges Africa's friends to take advantage of opportunities for productive partnerships over environmental issues.




European Destiny, Atlantic Transformations


Book Description

With the fall of its centuries-old empire in 1974-1975, Portugal embarked on a transitional period that reconciled a long tradition of acting out national interests overseas with the need to integrate itself into Western Europe. The result has been a deemphasis on various Atlantic and colonial linkages and the forging of a new and highly successful European identity within the framework of the European Community. In "European Destiny, Atlantic Transformations "Scott B. MacDonald offers a comprehensive analysis of Portugal's foreign policy and its highly successful venture in economic and political transformation. Although Portugal is firm in its committment to a European destiny, it has not turned its back on relations with the United States and its former colonies hi Africa and Asia. MacDonald traces the evolution of U.S.-Portuguese cooperation along economic, cultural, and military lines and shows how NATO has played a pivotal role in the process. This was most recently underscored when the U.S. made extensive use of the Azores during the Gulf War against Iraq. Likewise, in its ties with the Lusophone countries formerly under its control--Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, S--o Tom" and Princip"--Portugal has sought to improve political relations and act as a peacemaker in regional conflicts such as those in East Timor, Angola, and Mozambique. The scope of MacDonald's work takes in issues posed to Portugal by new foreign policy concerns that range from the breakup of the Soviet Union to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in North Africa and the Middle East. He points out that in a world of rapidly shifting political and economic alignments, Portugal provides a representative model of a relatively small nation that has undergone succesful economic reform while deepening its committment to its new democratic system. As such, the Portuguese model is instructive for newly emerging democracies of Eastern Europe and Latin America. "European Destiny, Atlantic Transformations "is an important addition to the literature on post-Cold War politics. It will be read by historians, economists, and foreign policy specialists.




Nigeria


Book Description

Nigeria is in a long-standing crisis. Military rule has suffocated civil society and has entrenched a culture of repression, corruption, and official irresponsibility. The reign of Ibrahim Babangida has resulted in near total economic disaster for the country. The situation is so bad, as Julius Ihonvbere shows, that Nigerians are now saying that the days of colonialism were better. In this major new study, Ihonvbere searches out the sources of Nigeria's predicament. He finds them in the country's historical experience, and the consequences of that experience since gaining political independence. Nigeria has become a society in which its citizens live in fear and its youth emigrate to other countries. It is now impossible to survive in the country without belonging to a certain religion, living in a particular region, having connections with top military officers, and being involved with some form of corruption. Even involvement in drug pushing or extrajudicial murder is no longer considered a crime, but a circumstance of life. Such conditions have encouraged the emergence of several popular organizations. New alliances of students, workers, women, youths, intellectuals, professionals, and the unemployed transcend ethnic, regional, and religious differences. For the author, it is at this emerging level of struggle and interaction that the future of Nigeria lies. This work examines several critical, but often overlooked or underresearched aspects of Nigeria's political economy. Ihonvbere analyzes in detail Nigeria's foreign policy, its economic crisis, the military, the decay of its educational system, and democratization. He pays particular attention to the paradoxical connection between IMF/World Bank-supervised structural adjustment and the struggle for democracy. His book will be of interest to experts hi socioeconomic development, foreign policy analysts, students of military science, and scholars of African politics and history.




The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War


Book Description

A fascinating chronicle of the Cold War battle where US and Soviet weapons, as well as Cuban and South African troops, took part in the Angolan Civil War. In the late 1980s, as America prepared to claim its victory in the Cold War over the Soviet Union, a bloody war still raged in Southern Africa, where proxy forces from both sides vied for control of Angola. The socialist Angolan government, stocked with Soviet weapons, had only to wipe out the resistance group UNITA, secretly supplied by the United States, in order to claim sovereignty. But as Angolan forces gained the upper hand, apartheid-era South Africa stepped in to protect its own interests. The white army crossing the border prompted the Angolans to call on their own foreign reinforcements—the army of Communist Cuba. Thus began the epic Battle of Cuito Cuanavale: an odd match-up of South African Boers against Castro’s armed forces. While South Africa was subject to an arms boycott since 1977, the Cuban and Angolan troops had the latest Soviet weapons. But UNITA had its secret US supply line, and the South Africans knew how to fight. As a case study of ferocious fighting between East and West, The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War unveils a remarkable episode in the endgame of the Cold War—one that is largely unknown to the American public.




Foreign Intervention, Warfare and Civil Wars


Book Description

This book examines the impact of foreign intervention in the course and nature of warfare in civil wars. Throughout history, foreign intervention in civil wars has been the rule rather than the exception. The involvement of outside powers can have a dramatic impact on the course and nature of internal conflicts. Despite this, there has been little research which has sought to explain how foreign intervention influences the course of civil wars. This book seeks to rectify this gap. It examines the impact of foreign intervention on the warfare that characterises civil wars through by studying the cases of the Angolan and Afghan civil wars. It investigates how foreign resources affect the military power of the recipient belligerent, and examines how changes in the balance of capabilities influence the form of warfare that characterises a civil war. Warfare in civil wars is often highly fluid, with belligerents adapting their respective strategies in response to shifts in the balance of military capabilities. This book shows how the intervention of foreign powers can manipulate the balance of capabilities between the civil war belligerents and change the dominant form of warfare. The findings presented in this book offer key insights for policy-makers to navigate the increasing internationalization of civil wars around the globe. This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, intra-state conflict, war and conflict studies, and security studies.




Cold War in Southern Africa


Book Description

This edited volume examines the complexities of the Cold War in Southern Africa and uses a range of archives to develop a more detailed understanding of the impact of the Cold War environment upon the processes of political change. In the aftermath of European decolonization, the struggle between white minority governments and black liberation movements encouraged both sides to appeal for external support from the two superpower blocs. Cold War in Southern Africa highlights the importance of the global ideological environment on the perceptions and consequent behaviour of the white minority regimes, the Black Nationalist movements, and the newly independent African nationalist governments. Together, they underline the variety of archival sources on the history of Southern Africa in the Cold War and its growing importance in Cold War Studies. This volume brings together a series of essays by leading scholars based on a wide range of sources in the United States, Russia, Cuba, Britain, Zambia and South Africa. By focussing on a range of independent actors, these essays highlight the complexity of the conflict in Southern Africa: a battle of power blocs, of systems and ideas, which intersected with notions and practices of race and class This book will appeal to students of cold war studies, US foreign policy, African politics and International History. Sue Onslow has taught at the London School of Economics since 1994. She is currently a Cold War Studies Fellow in the Cold War Studies Centre/IDEAS




African Yearbook of International Law / Annuaire Africain de Droit International


Book Description

Founded in 1993, the African Yearbook, now published under the auspices of the African Foundation for International Law, is the only scholarly publication devoted exclusively to the study, development, dissemination and wider appreciation of international law in Africa as a whole. Through the scholarly analysis of international legal issues of particular relevance to the African continent, it also contributes to the acceptance of, and respect for the rule of law in intra-African relations, and for the principles of international law in general. Its uniqueness however goes beyond this, for through its special themes and general articles, it has succeeded over the years to serve as an intellectual forum where the development of international law is viewed as being integral to Africa's own development. Through the study and analysis of emerging legal issues of particular relevance to Africa, such as the creation of viable continental institutions capable of promoting unity and security for the peoples of the continent, the effective protection of human rights, the need for accountability for mass killings and massive violations of the rule of law, the promotion of a rule-based democratic culture, the role of African countries in a globalizing world economy and in international trade relations, the Yearbook strives to be responsive to the intellectual needs of African countries in the area of international law, andtothe continuing struggle for creating an environment conducive to the rule of law throughout the continent. The Yearbook also provides ready access to the basic documents of African international organizations by regularly publishing the resolutions and decisions ofregional and sub-regional organizations as well as the conventions, protocols and declarations adopted by pan-african agencies. Through the study and analysis of emerging legal issues of particular relevance to Africa, such as the creation of viable continental institutions capable of promoting unity and security for the peoples of the continent, the effective protection of human rights, the need for accountability for mass killings and massive violations of the rule of law, the promotion of a rule-based democratic culture, the role of African countries in a globalizing world economy and in international trade relations, the Yearbook strives to be responsive to the intellectual needs of African countries in the area of international law, andtothe continuing struggle for creating an environment conducive to the rule of law throughout the continent. The Yearbook also provides ready access to the basic documents of African international organizations by regularly publishing the resolutions and decisions of regional and sub-regional organizations as well as the conventions, protocols and declarations adopted by pan-african agencies.




Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2002


Book Description

The world’s only annual publication devoted to the study of the laws of armed conflict, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed academic articles focusing on this highly-topical branch of international law. The Yearbook also includes a selection of documents from the reporting period, many of which are not accessible elsewhere and a comprehensive bibliography of all recent publications in humanitarian law and other relevant fields. Ease of use of the Yearbook is guaranteed by the inclusion of a detailed index. Distinguished by its topicality and contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.