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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Conflicts in Central Africa: Clandestine Networks and Regional/Global Configurations
Author:Taylor, IanISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:30
Issue:95
Period:March
Pages:45-55
Language:English
Geographic terms:Central Africa
Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:political stability
civil wars
political economy
regional economic relations
Inter-African Relations
Economics and Trade
international relations
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240308372
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=KWV264MPWFAABT53GUYG
Abstract:Central Africa is currently characterized by conflict and disorder with concomitant social, political and ecological dislocation. The war(s) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its borderlands are a catastrophe in the heart of Africa. At the formal level, the SADC is ridden by tension and rivalries that profoundly call into question the 'official' region-building project. Yet, at the same time, another type of regional networking has been assiduously crafted. This networking, often clandestine and illegal, has helped forge a regionalization that may not be recognizable at first glance, but is surely as 'real' in the DRC as any formal regionalism. The type of regionalism emerging links well-placed individuals and groups within Africa to outside interests, creating a milieu where a wide variety of shadow networks involving States, mafias, private armies, 'businessmen' and assorted State elites from both within and outside Africa has developed. The role that international capital has played in these developments is discussed in this paper, throwing into relief the involvement of international interests in helping perpetuate Africa's disorder. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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