The illicit timber trade fuels conflict and instability by providing resources for violent actors and spreading corruption. Some examples from Africa: • During the civil war in Liberia, timber trafficking was one of warlord Charles Taylor’s prime means of financing. It also facilitated Taylor’s support to the Revolutionary United Front in neighboring Sierra Leone. • When the Seleka rebel coalition took over in Central African Republic in 2013-14, international timber traders paid them at least 3.4 million euros in protection fees to continue their harvesting and exporting operations. This reinforced the rebels’ presence and also facilitated arms trafficking. After the Seleka lost power, Anti-Balaka militias were also reportedly paid to provide protection. • In the DRC, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and several other militant groups in the east have been involved in the illegal timber trade, which serves as a conflict financing mechanism. Currently, Uganda is a transit hub for approximately 80% of illegal timber from the DRC that passes through East Africa. Government corruption and illegal logging are mutually reinforcing. Logging involves heavy equipment and networks of forest roads, so illegal logging requires high-level government collusion. Illicit financial flows from timber trafficking, in turn, further entrench these senior officials, creating ongoing incentives to abuse public power for private gain. These illicit flows represent lost tax revenue stolen from the people. These patterns create a vicious cycle that threatens the rule of law and fosters mistrust between governments and citizens.
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Denkfabriken
Washington, District of Columbia 14,941 followers
Impact through Insight
Über uns
For 20 years, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies has served as a forum for research, academic programs, and the exchange of ideas with the aim of enhancing citizen security by strengthening the effectiveness and accountability of African institutions. By strengthening the capacity of Africa’s security sector institutions and providing evidence-based strategic guidance to U.S. policymakers, the Africa Center is enhancing security for African and American citizens. Academic Programs: The Africa Center’s academic programs examine strategic insights and analyses that can inform practitioners and policymakers on Africa’s security challenges. The Center has held more than 150 multilateral programs involving some 15,000 participants from every country on the continent, and our alumni include nine heads of state and more than 200 cabinet ministers and ambassadors. Community and Alumni Affairs: The Africa Center community is a global network of 7,000 professionals who have participated in an Africa Center program. The Africa Center works to maintain the relationships forged during programs to facilitate dialogue, information sharing, and networking. Research: The Africa Center’s research publications practical, policy-relevant analyses with the intention of generating publicly available, evidence-based insights of contemporary and over-the-horizon security issues. African authors account for at least half of these research products, facilitating an exchange of views on effective strategies and practices for advancing Africa’s security. The Center also assists in strategic planning processes, including national security strategy development, maritime security cooperation, security sector reform, and security sector institutional strengthening, among other areas.
- Website
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https://africacenter.org/
External link for Africa Center for Strategic Studies
- Industrie
- Denkfabriken
- Größe des Unternehmens
- 51-200 Mitarbeiter
- Hauptsitz
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Typ
- Government Agency
- Gegründet
- 1999
- Spezialitäten
- Africa, Security, Research, Maritime safety and security, Counterterrorism, Leadership, and National security strategy
Standorte
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Primäre
300 5th Ave SW
Washington, District of Columbia 20319, US
Employees at Africa Center for Strategic Studies
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Eric Kingsepp
National Security and Communications
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Fairlie Chappuis
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Nate D.F. Allen
Associate Professor, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University
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Joe Siegle
Democratization, stabilizing fragile states, and the political economy of security and development
Aktualisierungen
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The degree to which violence from militant Islamist groups in the Sahel has spiked under the military juntas is staggering. But what's more striking is the fact the juntas and their allied militias and mercenaries are responsible for more civilian deaths (2,430) than the Islamist groups (2,050). The juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso are greater direct security threats to their people than the Islamist threats they held up as justification for their seizures of power.
Africa’s Constantly Evolving Militant Islamist Threat – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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South Africa continues its steady efforts to find and root out corruption: https://lnkd.in/e9wAYDtE South Africa's multiple layers of inquiry and oversight offer a roadmap to other African countries seeking to strengthen institutional accountability of government officials: https://lnkd.in/eJiy9V6E
South Africa is investigating alleged $7B corruption at state-owned companies
apnews.com
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Disinformation and instability are connected. Disinformation campaigns have been used to drive violence, promote coups, intimidate citizens into silence, and deflect attention from corruption. https://lnkd.in/dkUJZr_5
Mapping a Surge of Disinformation in Africa – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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Africa's academic, think tank, and civil society expertise of Africa-China relations has grown considerably. Independent African voices are weighing in on Africa-China policy debates, especially at the African Union. Yet the China-Africa Forum remains heavily focused on state-to-state dialogue. African governments’ failure to tap the vast amount of African cultural and linguistic expertise of China is part of the reason African countries mostly take a back seat while China initiates much of the agenda of the Forum. The run up to this year's FOCAC has seen a high level of organized advocacy and engagement by civic and academic leaders, independent experts, and NGOs. Their policy recommendations can be grouped into eight broad themes: 1. Take greater initiative and leadership by developing and advancing a coherent Africa strategy toward China. 2. Instead of having 54 heads of state marching into each meeting with an external partner, the continent should create task forces with smaller groups of countries representing Africa in each summit with external actors. These can be organized thematically and accentuate African expertise by rationalizing the division of labor. 3. Convene a meeting of senior African officials akin to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) National Coordinators Meeting to harmonize positions ahead of FOCAC. 4. De-emphasize aid and focus on trade, preferential market access, the targeting of niche markets, and aggressive product value addition. 5. Push for technology transfer, especially in green energy and green growth. 6. Align education and training with Africa’s human resource needs. 7. Enhance oversight by establishing an ongoing dialogue platform between FOCAC summits that includes outside voices and experts, relevant parliamentary oversight committees, and independent China caucuses. 8. Tap available outside expertise, including the growing community of China-trained African professionals. Africa has benefitted from FOCAC, but more proactive engagement is needed. African engagements tend to be ad hoc and poorly structured, putting the continent at a distinct disadvantage. African countries must become more strategic, include nongovernmental voices, be mindful of the pitfalls of unrestrained and unaccountable borrowing, and establish more transparency of FOCAC agreements to ensure that African representatives place national interests ahead of personal ones. https://lnkd.in/eMYtanPX
FOCAC 2024: Elevating African Interests Beyond the Africa-China Summit – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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A popular junta … a reformist military … improving security … MYTHS. Malians are suffering more under military rule than they did under leaders they could remove. https://lnkd.in/eeG6Q4HB
‘They rape us before we can cross’: Women, girls fleeing violence in Mali | Armed Groups | Al Jazeera
aljazeera.com
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The Ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) takes place in Beijing next week. In contrast to bottom-up, multisectoral summits such as Japan's TICAD, China views its engagement with African countries as an avenue through which it can advance its quest for Great Power status—a means to an end. Our latest Spotlight looks at how Africans can formulate a more strategic, inclusive approach: https://lnkd.in/eMYtanPX
FOCAC 2024: Elevating African Interests Beyond the Africa-China Summit – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), coming up in September, is largely shaped by a donor-recipient dynamic where African countries mostly take a back seat while China initiates much of the agenda. Paul Nantulya attributes this partly to weaknesses in strategic planning on the African side. FOCAC is heavily regime-centric, lacking broad-based public consultation and engagement. As a result African governments have failed to tap the vast amount of African cultural and linguistic expertise of China that exists on the continent. https://lnkd.in/eMYtanPX
FOCAC 2024: Elevating African Interests Beyond the Africa-China Summit – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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The Sahel and Somalia account for over 80% of all violent extremist fatalities on the continent. https://lnkd.in/eXgaGnZH
Africa’s Constantly Evolving Militant Islamist Threat – Africa Center for Strategic Studies
africacenter.org
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Climate change is predicted to be the driver of up to 10 percent of all African cross-border migration by mid-century. This is largely a result of more severe flooding, drought, and storms. Read more about climate change and migration in our analysis of 2024 migration trends. https://lnkd.in/dRScSmtZ
African Migration Trends to Watch in 2024
africacenter.org