Contesting Visions of Peace in Africa: Darfur, Ivory Coast, Libya

This lecture examines an emergent clash between different concepts of peace and peacemaking in Africa. Increasingly, internationally- sponsored peace agreements are framed by global norms for human rights and governance, so mediators follow less the traditional model of facilitating the belligerents’ search for compromise, and instead be- come arbiters of a standard package—that has a mixed record of deliv- ering outcomes. Meanwhile, the is becoming a signifi- cant player in peace and security, and is introducing some creative ap- proaches. The AU most often focuses on building consensus, either minimally among belligerents or more inclusively among all societal stakeholders, and tends to prioritize stability. Tensions between the two approaches, latent in Darfur, barely suppressed over Ivory Coast, became public during the Libya war, where the AU tried to mediate Alex de Waal Executive Director while the UN and NATO pursued a military campaign. Neither ap- World Peace Foundation proach, however, critiques the role of the international arms business or questions the viability of state-building and development frame- works in the shadow of global political and economic inequities.

Alex de Waal is executive director of the World Peace Foundation. Considered one of the foremost experts on and the Horn of Africa, his scholarly work and practice has also probed humanitar- ian crisis and response, human rights, HIV/AIDS and governance in Africa, and conflict and peace- building.

In 1988, he received a D.Phil. in social anthropology at Nuffield College, Oxford for his thesis on the 1984-5 Darfur in Sudan. The next year he joined the Africa division of , only to resign in December 1992 in protest for HRW's support for the American military involve- ment in Somalia. He was the first chairman of the Mines Advisory Group at the beginning of the In- ternational Campaign to Ban Landmines. He set up two independent human rights organizations, African Rights (1993) and Justice Africa (1999), focusing respectively on documenting human rights abuses and developing policies to respond to human rights crises, notably in Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan. From 1997 to 2001, he focused on avenues to peaceful resolution of the second Sudanese Civil War. In 2001, he returned to his work on health in Africa, writing on the intersection of HIV/ AIDS, poverty and governance, and initiated the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.

Following a fellowship with the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard (2004-06), he worked with the Social Science Research Council as director of the program on HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation, and led projects on conflict and humanitarian crisis in Africa (2006-09). During 2005-06, de Waal was seconded to the African Union mediation team for Darfur and from 2009-11 served as senior adviser to the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan. He was on the list of For- eign Policy ’s 100 most influential public intellectuals in 2008 and Atlantic Monthly ’s 27 “brave think- ers” in 2009.

His publications include: Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War (London, Zed 2008). Alex de Waal, AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis—Yet (London, Zed, 2006). Alex de Waal, Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa (Indiana Univ Press, 1997).

The Centre for Peace and Development Studies (CPDS) brings together a community of scholars with a commitment to studying conflict, peacebuilding and development at local, national and global levels and from diverse perspectives. It fosters individual and collaborative research by creat- ing a network or staff, PhD candidates and MA students across disciplines, including members from politics, public administration, psychology, education within the university. It facilitates engagement with a wider group of external scholars and practitioners through seminars, guest lectures, research partnerships and associate membership. The CPDS accommodates the MA in Peace and Develop- ment and the MA in Development and students become active members.

The CPDS promotes five research strands: on political violence, democratisation, globalisation and resistance, conflict transformation and civic engagement, looking within Ireland and globally. When it was founded in 1997, its early focus was mainly on conflict resolution in Northern Ireland, build- ing on its original association with the Irish Peace Institute. This interest is sustained in the work of current members, among them Professor Orla Muldoon, and in the work of students on the MA in Peace and Development programme, who participate in an annual study trip to Belfast or Derry. In the last five years, with Professor Tom Lodge as Director, there has been an emphasis on creating a cluster of staff and PhD students with expertise on Sub-Saharan Africa. Another important research trajectory has been in poverty alleviation and social exclusion in and around Limerick. The centre also benefits from key members with expertise in Latin America and the post-Soviet Caucuses.

Staff affiliated to the CPDS have a track record of winning research awards and several recent or current PhD students have been awarded Marie Curie or IRCHSS fellowships. The centre has devel- oped external networks though an award in 2008 under the Irish Aid/HEA strategic Programme of Cooperation with Higher Education Institutions; through training activities with Irish Aid; through the European Doctoral Enhancement Network in Peace and Conflict Studies; and through its inclu- sion in the Georgia Education and Enterprise Project (GEEP). It has partners in various countries, including at the Universities of Makerere, Uganda; KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It aims to reinforce these existing links, while continuing to forge new connections with scholars and practitioners who share an interest in researching obstacles to and struggles for peace and development.

James-Emmanuel Wanki, discussant, is a member of the Centre for Peace and Development and an expert in regional approaches to conflict prevention. He is currently in the advanced stages of his doctoral Research on The European Union and the Prevention of Conflicts in West Africa: An Analysis of the Principle of Local Ownership, under the supervision of Professor Tom Lodge. He is a Marie Curie Fellow of the University of Limerick in Ireland and the University of Bradford in UK. He enrolled on the Masters by Research in Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick as Irish Aid Anna Lindh Scholar in June 2007. He also holds an MA in Globalisation, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster London and several specialized professional certificates in the inter- related areas of peacekeeping, peace building, conflict management, elections observation, and humanitarian intervention.

Centre for Peace and Development Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland E-mail: [email protected]; www.ul.ie/ppa/centre-for-peace-and-development-studies