Based on original and cutting edge research and authored by leading scholars in the field, African Border Disorders significantly enriches our understanding of transnational extremist organizations in postcolonial Africa. What makes this volume stand apart in the burgeoning literature on political violence is that its authors clearly locate the spatial patterns of attacks within the social networks underlying rebel movements in the African continent.
Ousmane Kane, Harvard University, USA
While the rest of the world continues to recognize African states, many of which have limited empirical existence and do little for their populations, challenges to these states on the ground increasingly ignore and bypass existing sovereign territorial configurations. This original, insightful and methodologically sophisticated book directs a cast of outstanding scholars to break down the transnational social and spatial networks that have progressively turned many African states upside down. Reaching broadly across topics and regions, this work is of critical theoretical and policy importance.
Pierre Englebert, Pomona College, USA
This remarkable collection of chapters brings together scholars from across the world working on the difficult subjects of both transnational behaviour and armed group relationships. Research on relationships, networks and strategies are grounded in innovative and robust empirical evidence and methods. Insights from these rigorous works will serve as a guide to students, an excellent resource for researchers, and will set the agenda for future policy and practitioner work on the security of border regions in areas of intense violent competition. A timely and welcome contribution to the study of political violence patterns.
Clionadh Raleigh, University of Sussex, UK
African Border Disorders
Since the end of the Cold War, the monopoly of legitimate organized force of many African states has been eroded by a mix of rebel groups, violent extremist organizations and self-defense militias created in response to the rise in organized violence on the continent.
African Border Disorders explores the complex relationships that bind states, transnational rebels and extremist organizations, and borders on the African continent. Combining cutting-edge network science with geographical analysis, the first part of the book highlights how the fluid alliances and conflicts between rebels, violent extremist organizations and states shape in large measure regional patterns of violence in Africa. The second part of the book examines the spread of Islamist violence around Lake Chad through the lens of the violent Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, which has evolved from a nationally oriented militia group to an internationally networked organization. The third part of the book explores how violent extremist organizations conceptualize state boundaries and territory and, reciprocally, how the civil society and the state respond to the rise of transnational organizations.
The book will be essential reading for all students and specialists of African politics and security studies, particularly those specializing in fragile states, sovereignty, new wars and borders as well as governments and international organizations involved in conflict prevention and early intervention in the region.
Olivier J. Walther is Visiting Associate Professor in African Studies at the University of Florida, USA.
William F.S. Miles is Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston, USA.
Routledge Studies in African Politics and International Relations
Edited by Daniel C. Bach
Emile Durkheim Centre for Comparative Politics and Sociology, Sciences Po Bordeaux
1 Neopatrimonialism in Africa and Beyond
Edited by Daniel Bach and Mamoudou Gazibo
2 African Agency in International Politics
Edited by William Brown and Sophie Harman
3 The Politics of Elite Corruption in Africa
Roger Tangri and Andrew M. Mwenda
4 Reconstructing the Authoritarian State in Africa
George Klay Kieh, Jr. and Pita Ogaba Agbese
5 Critical Perspectives on African Politics
Liberal Interventions, State-building and Civil Society
Edited by Clive Gabay and Carl Death
6 Homegrown Development in Africa
Reality or Illusion?
Chukwumerije Okereke and Patricia Agupusi
7 Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Game of the Rules
Edited by Tom de Herdt and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
8 African Migrants and Europe
Managing the Ultimate Frontier
Lorenzo Rinelli
9 Africa in Global International Relations
Emerging Approaches to Theory and Practice
Edited by Paul-Henri Bischoff, Kwesi Aning and Amitav Acharya
10 Regionalism in Africa
Genealogies, Institutions and Trans-state Networks
Daniel C. Bach
11 Chinas Aid to Africa
Does Friendship Really Matter?
Zhangxi Cheng and Ian Taylor
12 African Border Disorders
Addressing Transnational Extremist Organizations
Edited by Olivier J. Walther and William F.S. Miles
First published 2018
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 selection and editorial matter, Olivier J. Walther and William F.S. Miles; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Olivier J. Walther and William F.S. Miles to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Walther, Olivier, editor, author. | Miles, William F. S., editor, author.
Title: African border disorders : addressing transnational extremist
organizations / edited by Olivier J. Walther and William F.S. Miles.
Other titles: Routledge studies on African politics and international relations.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge studies in
African politics and international relations | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017011078 | ISBN 9781138054684 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315166483 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Political violenceAfrica, Sub-Saharan. |
ViolenceReligious aspectsIslam. | Islamic fundamentalismAfrica,
Sub-Saharan. | Africa, Sub-SaharanBoundaries.
Classification: LCC HN780.Z9 .V525 2017 | DDC 303.60967dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011078
ISBN: 978-1-138-05468-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16648-3 (ebk)
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