The Handbook of African Defence and Armed Forces

The Handbook of African Defence and Armed Forces provides the first in-depth and multifaceted analysis of the evolution and current state of national defence policies, strategies, doctrines, capabilities, security challenges, and strategic responses of African states and their armed forces. Geographically, these aspects are investigated at the national, sub-regional, and regional levels. Chronologically, they are analysed against the backdrop of the ’superpower withdrawal’ from the continent in the 1990s, and the so-called ’New Scramble for Africa’, which has seen a crescendo of renewed great power interest in the continent’s resources, as well as its strategic role, location, and relevance since the 2000s.

The book takes a bottom-up and African-centric approach, and is organized around five key themes: i) the differing security outlooks and defence policies of African powers within the region and the different sub-regions; ii) the strategies, doctrines, transformation, and employment of African armed forces; iii) the relationship between African armed forces with sub-regional, regional, and international organizations; iv) the challenges that African states and their armed forces have been facing and their strategic responses; and v) the position of African perspectives and agency in the context of continental and international security and defence. Understanding African security and defence, especially in terms of each individual nation’s ability to contribute to peacekeeping operations, counterterrorism, border security, and internal security requires a focus on the national level of armed forces and defence policies; this in turns sheds light on sub-regional and regional divergences, challenges, and cooperation. Based on this framework, the chapters in this volume offer comprehensive African perspectives on African and international security and defence, and in doing so show the agency of the continent’s countries and armed forces in International Security and Relations.

Evert Kleynhans, Associate Professor, Department of Military History, Stellenbosch University, Marco Wyss, Professor of International History and Security, Department of History, Lancaster University

Evert Kleynhans is Associate Professor in the Department of Military History at the Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. He is also an honorary researcher at the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. His broad research focuses on operational, naval, and intelligence history, as well as irregular warfare in Southern Africa.

Marco Wyss is Professor of International History and Security at Lancaster University; a Research Fellow at the Department of Military History, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Previously, he has held permanent and visiting positions at - among others - the University of Chichester, ETH Zurich, the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, the University of Lausanne, the University of the Free State, Sciences Po Lille, and Sciences Po Aix.