Russia and south Africa in the nineties

Extracts from a paper presented at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Universal History, Centre for African Studies and at the Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Studies, Centre for African History.     

South Africa and Japan: Between domestic reform and global reach

Beset by shifting public opinion and a rising chorus of calls for early withdrawal, the US president has outlined a plan for successfully completing his administration's project in Iraq. But victory means something very different for the US than it does for Iraqis themselves, and defining the agenda on Washington's terms risks prospects for lasting stability.     

Crime, conflict and politics in transition-era South Africa

Despite the potentially catastrophic repercussions of SouthAfrica’s violent crime epidemic, little progress has beenmade in understanding why violence has persisted and even escalatedsince the end of apartheid in 1994. Adopting an historical approachthat highlights the persistence of urban violence throughoutthe twentieth century, this article focuses on the criminaldimensions of the ‘political’ conflicts of the 1980sand 1990s. The advent of democracy was not in itself sufficientto erase a deeply entrenched culture of violence produced bydecades of repressive racial policing, violent crime and socialconflict. Moreover, politicized hostilities and the continuingdeterioration of law and order structures in the final yearsof apartheid gave birth to various groups that engaged in criminalviolence and provided favourable conditions for well establishedcriminal networks. Such elements were unlikely to put down theirguns and relinquish power simply because politicians declaredthe fighting to be over. Situating transition-era violence withinits historic context and broadening the narrow conception of‘political’ conflict enable us to better understandboth this fractious period and the violence that continues toafflict South Africa.     

South-West Africa, the Union and the United Nations

The following address was given at a joint meeting of the RoyalAfrican Society and Royal Commonwealth Society on December 3,1959, by Sir Charles Arden-Clarke G.C.M.G., Chairman of theCouncil, former Governor-General of Ghana, and Chairman of theUnited Nations Good Offices Committee that visited South Africain 1958 to discuss the problem of South-West Africa with theUnion Government. Sir John Macpherson, G.C.M.G., former Governor-Generalof Nigeria, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office,took the chair.     

Pre-colonial centralisation,traditional indirect rule,and state capacity in Africa

What explains contemporary variation in state capacity across African states? Recent research has focused on the possible role played by colonial and pre-colonial institutions. This paper investigates the way in which colonial and pre-colonial institutions interacted to affect the public legitimacy and coercive capacity of African states on independence. A coherent configuration of historical institutions, pre-colonial centralisation combined with colonial indirect rule through traditionally legitimate rulers, contrasts with the incoherent and comparatively illegitimate configurations of pre-colonial decentralisation with traditional rule and pre-colonial centralisation with colonial non-traditional or direct rule. The paper tests the theoretical expectations in a historical instrumental-variables framework.     

The SADC organ for politics,defence and security: Challenges for regional community building

The launch of the SADC Organ for Politics, Defence and Security in June 1996 brings to a close a process that started with the transformation of SADCC into SADC in 1992. It also indicates the start of a new process to build and maintain security in the region through a formal institution and the building of the structure and institution itself. A question which arises is whether the Organ will provide the conditions and mechanisms necessary to establish and develop a security community in the region as envisaged in the SADC Treaty. This article examines and evaluates the SADC Organ with the aim of providing an initial analysis of its potential to realise the SADC Treaty's vision of Southern Africa as a secure, peaceful, development community. It would seem at this stage that although the potential exists for the Organ to develop into an efficient and active institution of SADC, the role of personalities and force of habit inhibit the realisation of the Organ's goals and objectives.     

The Soviet Military Administration and East German Elections, Autumn 1946

Even before the capitulation of Germany in 1945 the Soviet Union had begun to make preparations for a step-by-step communist seizure of power in the territories it controlled. This paper shows that the elections in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) in autumn 1946 were part of this radical change. Unpublished Russian documents provide evidence that Soviet military authorities had planned almost every detail of this campaign to ensure that the Socialist Unity Party of German (SED) headed the poll — and this was even more evident after the crushing defeat of the communists in Hungary and Austria in 1945. In any case the Soviets were determined that such defeat should not happen again due to Stalin's postwar plans to establish a predominantly communist Germany.     

Personalization and Institutional Constraints: Pinochet, the Military Junta, and the 1980 Constitution

The standard account of military dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990) portrays the case as a personalist regime, and uses the dynamics associated with this type of regime to explain General Pinochet's control of the presidency, the enactment of the 1980 Constitution, and the longevity of military rule. Drawing on records of the decisionmaking process within the military junta, this article presents evidence for a different characterization of the dictatorship. It shows that Pinochet never attained the supremacy commonly attributed to him, that the commanders of the other branches of the armed forces retained significant powers, and that the 1980 Constitution was not enacted to project Pinochet's personal power. More generally, this study suggests that personal power is not a necessary condition for regime longevity; collective systems can also produce cohesion and stability.