Programm Panels Zu den Panels Panel 01
No peace in sight?
Changing explanations and changing methods in research on Africa's wars
Convenors: Matthias Basedau (Hamburg), Andreas Mehler (Hamburg)
50 years after independence Africa is perceived as THE crisis continent. Wars (along with HIV, hunger and poverty) dramatically impact on the lives of Africans. In academia the last decades have seen a great variety of explanations for the persistence of war and violent conflict in Africa - between extensions of the Cold War ("proxy wars"), "poverty and conflict", "greed and grievance" and "failed states" (etc) while the topography of war changed: Southern Africa, once the scene of deadly conflict, gradually became the most peaceful sub-region and Central Africa appears today as the most unstable one. At the same time a number of academic and practice-oriented projects try to better identify sources of conflicts, define war types and detail numbers of casualties. They all are more or less controversial. The panel's ambition is twofold:
- confronting more qualitative with quantitative research on Africa's wars and looking for bridges between both.
- taking stock of new efforts to explain Africa's wars.
The panel convenors therefore invite papers emanating from established research centres as well as papers on innovative approaches to bridge existing gaps.
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