Contribution to the background of a conference which focused on the Security of West aArica

1. t
j ~emoire on proposed Seminar on African Security Concepts and New Practice the sensibilities it may arouse and to avoid unnecessary aggro. To tamper the happy
(provisional title!) moral language of the Human Security family of nations, we must balance the
understandings of " coalitions of the willing" with old negotiation of diplomatic
agreement Finally, we see the conference as part of a process. An important key in our
entire collaboration with the Liu Centre in particular and the development of our
Background knowledge and action programmes in Human Security in general.
This note sets out the preliminary views of African Security Dialogue and Research
(IDYW.,a:frigm,s~.QJJ:itY-1:g ASDR) on the proposed seminar scheduled for the end of
..Q Strategic Stance
January 2002 in Abuja, Nigeria, to be organized jointly by ASDR and the Liu Centre for
the Study of Global Issues. In broad outline, the idea of the seminar is to stage a In order to achieve the practical purposes sketched above, and also to provide a grid for
knowledge-based, information -sharing and action oriented seminar to coincide with an possible themes at the Abuja seminar, we need a careful strategic stance. This would
important ECOW AS meeting; to help disseminate the report of the International shape the public presentation and negotiation of the seminar process as well. The
Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty following elements may be considered in the development of such a stance.
(hJjp.:lLW.~R,g£: ill!y-,~.gJJiigi.s.SI.~S.~gh!) which is expected to have been presented by
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then; and to help in the process of developing an Africa-centric perspective on the The first element maybe to "dilute" the impact of the expected, understandable ICISS
broadening parameters of security in the present world condition, for instance, push for rolling back state sovereignty and fuming up the bases for intervention. Our
importantly, in the idea of Human Security. This is a working brieffor our own internal stratagem can b e to posit that the erosion of state sovereignty has been going on for a
consultations continue and we are also consulting with related, third parties. The purpose long time and that in certain respects recognition of this given can offer Africa some
is to provide a rough basis for intellectual and other negotiation of this exciting prospect advantages. We may start from a simple presentation of Stephen Krasner's arresting
argument that the historical reality of state sovereignty has been greatly exaggerated.
It would be recalled that the idea of the Abuja seminar was an important result of the Even imp erial, western countries have suffered significant erosion of sovereignty. i We
meeting in Vancouver on Thursday, October, 4, 2001. I had proposed, under the research may assure that the structures of African politics ensures that in significant ways states
project The New Regionalism and Security in West Africa: A Comparative Perspective, are often resilient and are able to press sovereignty against their citizens, subjects and
one of three lines of collaborative research proposed, that: captives even in conditions of general adversity. ii
"The niche that we intend to develop is to connect the peacemaking apparatus and At a practical policy level we may say that there have been important examples of
processes ofECOW AS to the outcomes of the International Commission on Intervention military intervention in the recent African experience. We may gloss the
and State Sovereignty and to deploy a comparative posture on ECOW AS in relation to ECOWAS/ECOMOG experience as a good example of homemade intervention. We may
other African and extra-continental intergovernmental integration organizations." invoke the important, fast-developing New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEP AD, formerly the New African Initiative) and the founding documents of the
The most important collaborative effort we presented to the Liu Centre was for a African Union as very clearly establishing the norm of intervention in pursuit of human
conference in Accra on African Concepts of Security. The idea was to work up ideas of rights across borders as a cardinal African norm.
the parameters of security, especially in non traditional contexts, which may be implicit
in existing African official and other stances and also to present extant perspectives on In line with the populist streak of our times, we can suggest that in the post September 11
the changing meaning of security in scholarship and statecraft to the consultation. We world condition and the war against individuals, the connections between individual,
have had advanced discussions with other partners, the most important being the Nordic state and international security appear very strong.
African Institute (http://www.naiuu.se/indexeng.html). on this Africa-centric conference.
The proposed Abuja meeting can be seen, from the point of view of ASDR's original Finally, a stick argument It can be argued that the potential erosion of state sovereignty
proposal, as a cross between the two ideas sketched above. There are many important is simply the price that has to be paid for international development assistance today.
aspects of the new proposal for Abuja, It is obvious that the seminar would now be at a NEP AD clearly implies this, generally in its framework of a norm-based compact and
much higher profile, in respect of official participation especially. This implies that we specifically in the idea of African countries' peer review of development strategies. The •
have to carefully craft the "multi track" aspect, especially as it concerns participation related, enlarged conceptions of security can be shown to carry the potential of providing
beyond state officials, of the consultation. The report ofICISS is likely to be the bases for firm Southern international development assistance claims, even to the
controversial, most especially in Africa. While we accept the great importance of making extent of firming up rights-based approaches to development on the policy agenda.
the report as widely known as possible, we also appreciate the need to be careful about Human Security, for example, has been exploited as a basis for a firm claim for Human

2. Development." The fact that Austria, the next chair of the Human Security Network, has
iI1Cticatedthat it would concentrate on the links between Human Rights and Human • Security and Vulnerability: Focus on Development and Environmental Stress.
Security, can be worked to good advantage here. Continue connecting Human Security with Human Development. Link to
forthcoming UN Summit on Sustainable Development.
• Youth and Information Empowerment - youth forum and press training session
to be organized alongside and/or before seminar. Substance would reflect themes
of main conference. New media to be deployed as far as possible - Abuja may be
a challenge! Media training and general communication functions to be
Themes undertaken by MFW A.
Informed by the orientations detailed above, I propose seven themes for the Abuja Amos Anyimadu
seminar. These themes also capture the areas of competence and interests pointed up by
the discussions with Liu researchers in Vancouver. In what follows I simply outline the i Stephen Krasner, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
broad analytic charges. After firm lines of action have been negotiated we can present Tbe argument is summarized and frames a symposium in Stephen D Krasner, "Sovereignty", Foreign
Policy, 122, 200 I.
detailed organizational profiles of presenters, budgets, etc. In terms of general
ii As I have argued in Governing without Politics: A Study of State Sovereignty and Economic Decline in
methodology, in keeping with the knowledge intensive demands of the broadening of
Ghana, Ph.D. Thesis, flinders University, 1990.
security concerns, the key, overarching principle would be to maintain a sharp knowledge iu Usefully captured in Nicole Ball, Human Security & Human Development Linkages andThe
focus. Secondly, we can adopt the ICISS method of making the main organizations Opportunities Report of a conference organized by the Programme for Strategic and International Studies,
involved - in this case ECOW AS, ASDR, Liu and perhaps a representative oflCISS - Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva March 8-9,200 I,
http://www .humansecuritynetwork.org/report _ may200 1_3-e.asp
lead off with general presentations on background and expectation. Different discussion
formats must be adopted for the themes in order, in particular, to maximize the impact of
the different categories ofparticipants.
The seven themes proposed are:
• Deepening Multilateral Security Cooperation: ECOWAS and Traditional
Security - Recognize ECOW AS' long engagement with traditional security
cooperation issues. Interpretation in terms of standards of intervention - is Serra
Leone qualitatively different from Liberia? Costs and Benefits of near powers
intervening in backyard.
• Broadening Multilateral Security: ECOWAS and Non Traditional Security-
Point up ECOW AS' increasing involvement in non traditional issues. Interesting
issue of border crossing herdsmen and food security. Human trafficking. Good
corporate citizenship.
• ECOW AS Security Fundamentals in Comparative Perspective. Are there
discernible norms emerging from prescribed norms and practice?
• The United Nations, the new Collective Security and Sovereignty. Strategically,
the UN secretariat must be made to carry the individual sovereignty argument,
especially if, as I suspect would be the case, ICISS does not go well beyond Kofi
Annan's bold statement.
• Security and Vulnerability: Focus on Children, War and Crime. Begin extending
Human Security concerns beyond vulnerability caused by violence and direct
threat of violence. Connect to UN General Assembly Summit on children and •
related processes.