Border battle line

ABSTRACT

The demarcation of a North–South boundary in the Sudan opens up the possibility of the creation of a new international border in Africa, following the outcome of the Southern Sudanese and Abyei Area referenda in 2011. The line of the proposed boundary runs through the grazing areas of numerous pastoralist peoples, and it is these peoples who will be most directly affected if the new border becomes the frontline between two states. In fact, pastoralists were mobilised to fight on either side of the boundary during both of Sudan's civil wars. This article looks at select areas of the North–South borderlands, particularly areas of shared rights, to analyse the potential impact of the new boundary. It looks at how overlapping rights claims were managed in the past, and goes on to analyse various peace-making efforts between border pastoralist peoples from the Condominium period until today. The article looks at the way the border issue has been dealt with in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the Abyei arbitration process, as an indicator of whether this border region will become the focus of continued conflict, whatever the 2011 referendum result.     

Why Abyei Matters: The Breaking Point of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement?

The Abyei Area, straddling the North–South border of Sudan,was the subject of a separate protocol in the ComprehensivePeace Agreement signed between the Sudan government and theSudan People's Liberation Movement in January 2005. One provisionof that protocol was the establishment of a boundaries commissionto define the territory to be included in the special administrationof the area. The commission's decision was to be implemented‘with immediate effect’ on the submission of itsreport in July 2005, but implementation has been blocked bythe National Congress Party, which still controls the centralgovernment in Sudan. The conduct of war in Abyei establishedmany precedents for the conduct of war in Darfur in the useof tribal militias and the forcible displacement of non-Arabpeoples. The failure to implement the Abyei Protocol has implicationsnot only for determining the North–South border (as stipulatedby the CPA), but for the implementation of any Darfur peaceagreement. Douglas H. Johnson (douglas{at}wendoug.free-online.co.uk) was aresource person at the first session of negotiations on theThree Areas at Karen, Kenya, in January 2003 and subsequentlyserved as an international expert on the Abyei Boundaries Commission.He has recently advised the Government of South Sudan on theNorth–South boundary issue.     

Becoming Hebrew. The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine

This paper discusses the factors that resulted in the formation of the short-lived Socialist Republican Party (SRP0 in December 1951, with emphasis on the Sudan government's role in its formation. Rivalry between the Khatmiyya and the Ansar was a strong factor in the formation of the party. The Sudan government hoped that the party would develop into a centre party representing the people of the Sudan and that would enlist the support of the Khatmiyya. The paper argues that this movement was too late as the political map of the Sudan had by then been drawn and there was no chance of success for the SRP in the circumstances. The formation of the SRP indicates a crisis of government; the Sudan government's frustration and despair led to the formation of the party. This is evident in the British documents and the private papers of the civil servants of the Sudan government which, in addition to the papers of the SRP, are the main source of this paper.     

A Tale of Two Families: The Mutual Construction of 'Anglo' and Mexican Ethnicities Along the US–Mexico Border

In the American Southwest and along the US–Mexico border, 'Anglos' and Mexicans are often viewed as the quintessential 'others'. This ethnographic study problematises the Anglo‐Mexican opposition with ethnographic data from interviews with a Mexican farmworker family and an 'Anglo' farmer family of the EI Paso Lower Valley. I argue that 'Anglo' hegemony is not based exclusively on cultural separation but often involves hybridity (including 'Mexicanisation') and patron‐client relations entailing 'benevolent' paternalism. I show how the concept of 'Anglo' is a contested identity constructed through interactions between Mexicans and Euroamericans. Through this study of border crossings in situations of asymmetrical power relations, I advocate a 'complicit' anthropology that presents competing ethnic groups in their full complexity rather than as stereotypes or caricatures of their 'others.'     

How the Rise of the Rapid Support Forces Sparked Sudan's Meteoric Descent

The processes that transitioned Sudan from a deeply securitized kleptocracy into a fledgling democracy have generated stressors that are now threatening its collapse. The country's two rival generals—Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudan Armed Forces and Mohammed Hamden Dagalo (nom de guerre Hemedti) of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces—have plunged Sudan into a bloodbath. Khartoum, the capital that had been an island of civility since it was ransacked by Dervishes in 1885, has been engulfed in fierce battles since the two groups turned on each other in April 2023. Unpacking the host of factors that prompted the bloody conflict is a complex task, but the rivals and their allies are the chief culprits. Once created as a means to run counterinsurgency strategy on the cheap, the Rapid Support Forces has expanded its capacity and become a major power center. Originating in Darfur as a plunder machine of the Janjaweed militias, the group outgrew its function and became a private army capable of routing overlords in quick succession. This article traces the roots of the Rapid Support Forces to demonstrate the structural factors threatening Sudan's stability.     

Naqshbandi Sufis and their conception of place,time and fear on the Turkish-Syrian border and borderland

The employment of diverse forms of security and control on territorial borders have led to the production of numerous events of border crossings, smuggling, banditry and death along with stories of separation, loss, mourning, pain, and yearning in the everyday life of border people. The Naqshbandi Khaznavi order has an expansive interpersonal social network across the political borders of Turkish and Syrian nation-states. This work analyzes the ways in which Sufis dealt with diverse aspects of the Turkish-Syrian border by unbinding shackles and orders of political system that were fabricated constantly from the 1920s to the early 1980s. The life stories and narratives of the Sufis document the existence of a religious-cultural landscape, diversifying the perception of place, time and fear which have transcended political borders for decades, contradicting official cartographic imagination and the modern-secular understanding of place and time. Besides, in addition to analyses of religious orders as social, economic and political entities, this work aims to elucidate emotional aspects of relations and faith that coexist between Sufis and their Sheikh in the context of spatial distance, political border and fear of death.     

Colonial education and the shaping of Islamism in Sudan, 1946–1956

Abstract

This article assesses the role of British colonial education in Condominium Sudan in shaping the mindsets of Sudan’s first generation of Islamists between 1946 and 1956. Drawing on post-colonial theorists such as Nandy and Bhabha, it contends that the experiences of the pioneers of Sudan’s Islamic movement at institutions such as Gordon Memorial College and Hantoub Secondary School moulded their understandings of both ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’. As a result of their colonial education, Islamists deployed discourses concerning both ‘progress’ and ‘cultural authenticity’ that bore remarkable parallels with colonial essentialism, even as they announced a decisive break with the colonial past. Much like the conventional nationalists, they used the space created by the colonial educational institutions to establish an ideological community that transcended the narrow ethnic and regional divides previously fostered by the British. At the same time, Islamists and colonialists alike shared a contempt for Marxists and ‘deculturated’ effendis, and Muslim Brothers’ aspirations to escape the ‘English jahiliyya’, however counter-intuitive this may seem, bore similarities with the worldviews of colonial officials concerned with preventing what they saw to be the excessive impact of urbanization and modern education on Sudan.     

“A Cat’s Paw of Indian Reactionaries”? Strategic Rivalry and Domestic Politics at the India–China–Myanmar Tri-Junction

ABSTRACT

Ostensibly driven by concerns over a military standoff with China similar to Doklam, India increased military deployment at the Myanmar tri-junction. This article assesses the inevitability of systemic factors such as rivalry with China in determining India’s approach on border issues. It asks why India sought formalization of its boundary with Burma in 1967. Given its territorial disputes with China, resolving the Burma boundary should have been high priority. Still, it took India two decades after independence to broach the subject. Based on fresh archival and interview data, this article answers the question by examining the India–Burma Boundary Agreement. A three-party territorial dispute, the making of this agreement witnessed simultaneous interplay between states with visible power differentials, and various stakeholders within India’s polity and bureaucracy. The article argues that even when inter-state competition is apparent, domestic factors may be more important in triggering foreign policy change.     

Russia,NMD and the ABM treaty: The dangers of American unilateralism

In order to consolidate its strategic bilateral relations developed in Africa over the past 14 years, South Africa must choose five key ‘hubs’ (regional powers) in each of Africa's five sub-regions. In addition, South Africa should pick two additional ‘spokes’ (influential actors) in each sub-region. These 15 strategic partners can increase South Africa's engagement on the continent in the areas of diplomacy, conflict management, and trade relations. South Africa's bilateral relations would thus resemble a gigantic bicycle, with five hubs and ten spokes. The five hubs are Mozambique, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, and Algeria. The ten spokes would be Zimbabwe, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Sudan, Tanzania, Egypt and Libya. It is around these countries that South Africa can build solid strategic bilateral relationships in Africa.     

Peace agreements in a near-permanent civil war: Learning from Sudan and South Sudan

The conflicts in the formerly united Sudan have led to millions of deaths since the country's independence. The Naivasha Agreement was meant to end these wars. The January 2005 agreement foresaw a future where the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement and the Sudanese government would coexist within the framework of a united country. Subsequently, in 2011, however, the country was partitioned and the conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan have continued unabated. Interrogating the treaty texts and employing a case study approach and analysis of the economic and power dynamics within the region, this paper addresses the reason behind the failure of the comprehensive peace agreement and subsequent agreements intended to bring peace after partition. It becomes evident that the same dynamics that fed the partition of the country have helped bring conflict within its two successor states. In short, agreements are not sufficient to build peace.     

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the questions of identity,territory and political destiny of the indigenous Nuba of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 was successful in ending the longest war in contemporary Africa. However, its implementation has been below the expectations of several communities, particularly in the war-torn regions of the Nuba Mountains, the Southern Blue Nile and the Abyei Area, widely referred to as ‘contested’, ‘marginalised’, ‘transitional’ areas or ‘border territories’. While many interwoven causes were behind the eruption of the protracted civil wars in the Sudan (Elnur 2009; Johnson 2006; Khalid 1987), the political question of sub-national identities and their intrinsic link with specific territories (Murphy 1991; William and Smith 1993) is hypothesised here as a prime factor in extending the civil war into these three areas. Taking the Nuba and their claimed territory of the Nuba Mountains as an example, this article will, first, trace the political striving of the Nuba people and their shift from peaceful political movement to armed struggle; second, it will examine their political status during the peace negotiation process; and third, it will analyse their political responses to the outcome of the CPA and its impact on their future political choices in view of the April 2010 election results, and the projected right to self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan, to be exercised through the referenda in 2011.     

SPLM–NCP asymmetrical power relations jeopardise the implementation of the CPA and the future of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The political instability that has characterised Sudanese politics since independence is attributable to political exclusion, economic neglect and marginalisation. Discrimination based on religion, language and culture has constituted the main contradictions between the masses of the Sudanese people (periphery) and the politically dominant Arabised Nubians (centre) in all the different politico-ideological hues experienced by the nation. Attempts to resolve this contradiction have left the structural imbalances inherited from the colonial administration of the Sudan intact. This explains the resurgence of war, particularly in Southern Sudan. The recent peace agreements between the National Congress Party (NCP), namely the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A); the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) (Minawi); the Cairo Agreement with the National Democratic Alliance and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement with the Eastern Sudan Front, have left the NCP still in firm control of the oppressive state machinery. The CPA power-sharing protocol awarded the NCP a majority which institutionalises a power asymmetry that the NCP utilises to obstruct implementation of the CPA and delay the process of democratic transformation.

This article analyses the asymmetry in the NCP–SPLM partnership and power relationship. It assumes that the tragic death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior is a major cause of the political weakness demonstrated by the SPLM since 2005. This power imbalance jeopardises the CPA implementation and the future of the Sudan as a state.     

边界功能、威胁认知与中国对陆上边界问题的应对

2017年6月,中印在洞朗地区发生边界对峙。中方在此次危机中始终保持了克制,并未通过武力方式解决边界危机。这与中国在1962年运用军事手段应对印度的挑衅截然不同。为何针对与同一个对象国出现的同类性质危机,中国的应对方式存在显著差异?文章认为,中国对陆上边界问题的处理方式,主要受到边界功能和决策者对威胁程度的认知这两个因素的影响。基于中国决策者对边界功能是政治与安全功能凸显还是经济功能优先,以及对对象国行为所带来的威胁认知高低程度不同的判断,将导致中国对边界问题采取四种应对方式:诉诸武力、展示决心(包括军事对峙等)、外交谈判、互利合作。通过对中国处理1962年与2017年两次中印边界危机、1956年中缅边界问题、2004年中俄边界问题的方式进行分析,可以发现上述分析框架得到了初步验证。文章通过探讨中国对陆上边界问题采取不同应对措施的原因,不仅有助于厘清影响中国政府针对陆上边界问题采取差异化应对措施的因素,还有利于为中国恰当地处理中印领土争端及其他陆上争议边界问题提供一定的启示,进而为改善中国周边外交、保障中华民族的伟大复兴提供初步的政策建议。     

A Youth Counter-Narrative on Trafficking and Smuggling from Africa to Europe

This article features the personal experiences of a young African woman victim of trafficking and smuggling from Nigeria to Italy. The aim of the article is to provide a counter-narrative on the phenomenon of human trafficking, by engaging with the youth’s lived experiences. The story forms part of a wider database of youth counter-narratives, gathered by the authors in different parts of the world (Italy, South Africa, and Ethiopia). The narrative will be discussed on the basis of four identified elements, and the reflection addresses them within the wider context of trafficking, smuggling, and human migration. The conclusion drawn is that the language of youth counter-narratives can represent a useful tool to address the complexity of social issues, in particular when they refer to lived experiences of youngsters who have been subjected to different forms of oppression and violence. It also represents a sort of liberation from cultural homogenisation, forcing the readers to engage with a “new humanism.”     

The dams of Northern Sudan and the policy of demographic engineering

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the deteriorating situation in Northern Sudan linked to policies of demographic engineering, embedded in plans for the further construction of dams along the Nile River in the North by the Government of Sudan. Although the generation of power and agricultural irrigation are the declared purpose of the dams, the fact is, these dams will, as past dam constructions have, cause a massive displacement of the Nubian, Manasir and Amri-Hamdab people far from their ancestral lands. With the collaboration of the Egyptian government the areas vacated will be repopulated with Egyptian peasants, as part of both governments’ plan to alter the demographics of North Sudan.     

The Rescaling of the Chinese State and Sino-North Korean Relations: Beyond State-Centrism

While Beijing has repeatedly signed up to multilateral sanctions against North Korea, it is widely regarded as having failed to enforce them. Indeed, China’s deepening economic engagement with the country has led observers to debate the causes of this seemingly duplicitous approach. Constructivist and realist approaches have relied on state-centric frameworks that serve to reduce Sino-North Korean relations to the high politics of Beijing-Pyongyang diplomacy in the context of broader geopolitical dynamics. This article argues that such approaches pay insufficient attention to the profound rescaling of the Chinese state in recent years and the implications this process has for bilateral relations. This article sheds light on how Sino-North Korean relations are being driven by actors at multiple scales and by a multitude of objectives as a result of decentralisation and marketisation alongside increasing geographical unevenness within China and new challenges to continued capital accumulation. North Korea has come to play an increasingly important role in efforts to facilitate economic recovery in the northeastern border regions through serving as spatial fix for Chinese manufacturing capital. These new cross-border flows of capital and labour suggest an emerging pattern of Sino-North Korean relations that is by no means static but in considerable flux.     

The bridge that divides: local perceptions of the connected state in the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan–China borderlands

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought profound changes to the borderlands of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang. In eastern Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan region, present-day weaknesses in territorial control of the post-Soviet state’s edges are directly wedded to borderlanders’ memories of Soviet-era practices of bordering, perceived locally as both systemically stronger and cognitively more beneficial to local lifeworlds than contemporary ‘Chinese penetration’. Across the border in Xinjiang, a formerly distant state has been brought into borderlanders’ locales and inscribed into everyday lifeworlds through novel manifestations of the state, which significantly affect cross-border interaction. By comparing how borderlanders on both sides of this frontier themselves choose to characterize border processes between ‘their’ states in the initial two decades of connections to Xinjiang, I explore how and why Kyrgyz and Tajik/Pamiri borderlanders voice strong opinions about what it is they feel has changed in these administrative-territorial homelands. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on both sides of this frontier, I argue that the gradual bridging of this formerly sealed border has led to neither the development of a new trans-frontier identity nor locally established trans-frontier networks but, instead, reconfirmed borders between China and Central Asia.     

Paradoxes of electoral authoritarianism: the 2015 Ethiopian elections as hegemonic performance

The 2015 elections in Ethiopia had a predictable outcome, showing an entrenched system of one-party dominance that self-referentially enacts the political order created by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) since 1991. EPRDF spokespersons continued to defend the party’s hegemony as inevitable, grounded in a logic of technocratic authority and with reference to ‘stability’ and ‘development’. This paper describes the electoral process not in the light of democracy theory but of hegemonic governance theory. Elections seem to have lost relevance in Ethiopia as a means of political expression and are only important as a performance of hegemonic governance and as ‘global impression management’ – showing state skills in securing a smooth electoral process as a major organisational feat in itself. Contradictions that the political process creates between the Ethiopian party-state and domestic constituencies, and between the attitudes/policies of certain donor countries, are downplayed or avoided, but problematic in the long run.     

边界转型对欧洲一体化进程的影响机制

成员国边界对欧洲一体化的影响是复杂和深刻的,一般可以概括为显性和隐性两个方面。从边界转型的角度看,欧洲一体化的过程就是边界不断由阻碍效应向接触和过滤效应转变的过程,而边境地区一体化又可以成为边界转型的重要推动力。因此,从这个意义上说,边境地区一体化是欧洲一体化的微观动力。本文首先分析了成员国边界对欧洲一体化的影响机制,进而讨论边境地区合作对边界转型的意义,最后探讨了欧洲边境地区一体化的治理模式。