Rethinking National Security Strategies in Africa

The delivery of security to state and citizens will continue to be the daunting task facing nation states in Africa.Many African countries are becoming increasingly unable to deliver security to their citizens and in some instances;states themselves have become sources of insecurity.This is attributed less to the evolving security threats exacerbated by megatrends but more to the governance deficit manifested in weak social contract and strategic leadership that are short supply in many African countries.Despite a well-articulated security and defense policy of the African Union with a call for its member states to do the same,there is a dearth of national security strategies in most African states.This is largely attributed not only to the lack of effective implementation mechanisms of such policy but importantly to the absence of tools to help member states to craft and implement their national security strategies.There is a convincing wealth of evidence that shows a well-designed and inclusive process of developing national security strategies enables decision-makers to better confront the security threats and improve effective delivery of security to all citizens and state.Such a process provides an invaluable opportunity as well for forging a new social contract between state and its people.This article is an attempt to contribute to rethinking of how security could be perceived,planned,and delivered to the citizens in Africa.

Revisiting Military Spending—Security Nexus in Africa

The military spending in Africa is not only high but it is persistent,unconstrained,and even defies the COVID-19 fiscal challenges.With militaries including intelligence been projected as the“guarantors”of national security,this phenomenon has been perpetuated by the assumption that more military spending will improve security conditions.This article revisits this assumption by showing the traditional state-centric military security threats that justify such high spending are increasingly been overtaken by the growing non-military security threats that have become the major national security concerns.Based on the available data on security,safety,and military spending in Africa,it is shown in this article the presence of inverse relationship between high military spending and security.The main driver of such spending is the backroom resource-driven defense policies that are grounded on the military-centric definition of strategy,which advocates military solutions and more resources to military as panacea for securing survival of state and safety of its citizens.Such military solutions might be detrimental to state and human security.The urgent war to be fought today in Africa is not about existential threat of state and its territorial integrity but it is a war against a web of complex threats to the lives and livelihoods of African citizens.One possible way of constraining the high military spending in Africa is to formulate new defense policies that are inclusive,transparent,people-centered,and guided by inclusive people-centered national security strategies and core budgetary principles.