Sub-regional intervention and the privatisation of politics in Africa

Sub-regional peacekeeping interventions in Africa have met with limited success in terms of conflict resolution. Nevertheless, the international community increasingly supports sub-regional conflict management arrangements so that African states can address the troubles on their own continent. The failings of subregional efforts have been ascribed to various factors, including inadequate training, co-operation and resources, and insufficient diplomatic experience on the part of peacemakers. This article suggests another contributing factor, namely the ‘privatisation of politics’. This paradigm groups various processes that have been identified in recent literature in order to explain the divergence of state functioning in Sub-Saharan Africa¹ from the Western state model. These include the ‘political instrumentalisation of disorder’,² the ‘shadow state’³ and the ‘criminalisation of the state’.⁴ The contention made here is that these processes could also influence inter-state sub-regional security co-operation. Two case studies are used to illustrate this point: the interventions of the Southern African Development Community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and of the Economic Community of West African States in Sierra Leone, including reference to the operation in Liberia.