Globalization and conflict management in africa: an analysis of peacekeeping operations in cote d’ivoire and sudan

Thesis Abstract

Dominant scholarships on globalization and conflict management take one of two basic approaches. The providentialists describe it as a process of unifying the world into a one happy and peaceful family of God. The constructionists conceive it as a human effort towards the creation of a borderless world through technological inventions. Both approaches failed to recognize resource inequalities as the driving force of both processes. It is against this backdrop that this study sought answers to the following questions (a) Is there any link between globalization and conflict management? (b)Are the escalating conflict situations in Africa a consequence of globalization? (c) Is conflict management, especially the management of conflict in Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan a process of creating and or restoring conduce environment for the movement of people, goods and capital across borders? (d)Is wealth redistribution by the states of Africa capable of enhancing conflict management in Africa? The broad objective of this study is to create a new path in this scholarship by locating the driving force of globalization and conflict management to resource inequalities among nation states. Thus globalization is seen by this study as the movement of people, goods and capital from resource- deficit area to resource-surplus area and vice versa. Similarly, conflict management is seen as the process of creating and or restoring conducive environment for the movement of people, goods ands capital across territorial borders. The specific objectives of this study, therefore, are (a) to explore the link between globalization and conflict management, (b) to investigate if the escalating conflict situations in Africa are a consequence of globalization, (c) to interrogate if the conflict management, especially the management of political crises in Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan is a process of creating and or restoring conducive environment for the movement of people, goods and capital across borders, (d) to ascertain if the option of wealth redistribution by the states of Africa is capable of enhancing conflict management in Africa. This study adopted longitudinal research design which refers to observations made at many times. Specifically, we relied on cohort longitudinal survey design. Our focus was to observe the political crises in Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan at different periods of their respective political history. We adopted secondary sources of data collection and hence relied primarily on library material and relevant documents from DFID, World Bank, UNDP, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Union, ECOWAS, European Union, African Institute of Applied Economics, and Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. The Marxian theory of postcolonial state is the analytical tool employed in this study. This enabled us to interrogate the African crises through the prisms of the dependent capitalist state, character of the ruling class and their linkages to foreign interests. Thus the Marxian theory of postcolonial state was used to interrogate and analyse data generated in the research. Tables were also used to analyze data where applicable. This study revealed that resource inequality is the driving force of globalization which in itself is the movement of people, goods and capital from resource-deficit area to resource-rich area and vice versa such as the movement of some nationals of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Arabs from Niger, Egypt, and other northern states of Africa from their resource-deficit territories to Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan respectively as ‘native foreigners’. Secondly, the study revealed that the escalating conflict situations in Africa are directly linked to activities of the transnational corporations (TNCs) and economic refugees, who degrade the environment, create resource-scarcity and thus generate conflicts in their host states. Thirdly, the study discovered that the management of conflicts in Africa is aimed at creating and or restoring conduce environment for the movement of people, goods and capital in Africa. Fourthly, the study found out that equitable distribution of wealth by the states of Africa is the effective strategy of managing conflict situations in Africa.