Browsing by Subject "Sub-Saharan Africa"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Open Access
Duration of civil wars from a world-systems analysis perspective : the cases, of Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone
(2011) Boitsova, Anastassia
Since the end of the Second World War, civil conflicts emerged as one of the major threats to security not only in their respective regions but also for the whole world, especially for powerful states. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the number of new intrastate wars decreased, but the existing wars increased in duration. This thesis examines this phenomenon from Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis perspective by arguing that the flow of capital from the periphery states to the core countries that takes place during the conflict increases the duration of the respective civil war. The main objective is to shed light on the causes of the entrenched civil warfare in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research uses theory building case study method, looking at civil wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. The evidence presented in the cases suggests that the powerful core states and firms located in these countries affect the duration of civil conflicts through engaging in activities aimed at increasing their capital. These states carry out international trade in illegally extracted natural resources, most notably ‘blood diamonds’, which provides funding for the warring factions. In addition, private security firms or mercenaries drain both money and resources from war-torn states under the covert support from the core states. This thesis contributes to the theoretical framework of Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis and to the literature on civil conflicts
Open Access
Inclusive globalization or old wine in a new bottle? China-led globalization in sub-Saharan Africa
(Routledge, 2022-02-15) Verkhovets, Stepan; Karaoğuz, E.
This article questions whether China’s economic initiatives lead to ‘inclusive globalization’ or tend to sustain the distributional inequalities of neoliberal globalization in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that many considerations, including China’s so-called ‘no strings attached’ policy and lending behaviour, unfavourable trade relations, concentration of Chinese investments in a few sectors, and limited technology and knowledge transfer, cast doubt on the realization of inclusive globalization. Even though economic relations with China may foster economic growth and provide short-term relief to the poor, which is also conditioned by the recipient countries’ degree of state capacity, it is questionable to what degree these relations lead to sustainable pro-poor development. No matter what the underlying political economy explanation is (China’s motivations and approach to globalization, weak state capacities in sub-Saharan Africa, structural impediments to development), it is misleading to conclude that China-driven economic globalization is inclusive.
Open Access
A prize collecting Steiner Tree approach to least cost evaluation of grid and off-grid electrification systems
(2017-07) Bölükbaşı, Gizem
The lack of access to electricity in developing countries necessitates spatial electricity planning for guiding sustainable electri cation projects that evaluate the costs of centralized systems vis-a-vis decentralized approaches. Heuristic approaches have been widely used in such electri cation problems to nd feasible, cost e ective solutions; however, most of the time global optimality of these solutions is not guaranteed. Our thesis through its modeling approach provides a new methodology to nd the least cost solution to this electri cation problem. We model the spatial network planning problem as Prize Collecting Steiner Tree problem which would be base for a decision support tool for rural electri cation. This new method is systematically assessed using both randomly generated data and real data from rural regions across Sub- Saharan Africa. Comparative results for the proposed approach and a widely used heuristic method are presented based on computational experiments. Additionally, a bi-objective approach that permits to take carbon emission level into the account is implemented and experimented with numerical data.
Open Access
Transnational terrorist franchising in sub-saharan Africa : the effects of religion and natural resources
(2016-08) Buğday, Anastassia
In the past decade or so, several major franchises took place between a transnational terrorist organization – such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State – and domestic terrorist organizations. By adopting Al Qaeda’s brand name, Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting was not only able to survive through counterterrorism measures enforced by the Algerian government, but also to reshape itself into a transnational terrorist group extending its influence to other countries. This dissertation argues that terrorist organizations are like business firms. Whatever their proclaimed goal is, their ultimate aim is survival. Terrorist organizations apply diverse strategies, in order to ‘stay in business,’ and franchise being one of them. By applying Zelinsky and Shubik’s (2009) typological framework, this work analyzes the motivations of terrorist organizations, both domestic and transnational, for involvement in the franchise strategy. This framework characterizes franchise as centralized in terms of operations, while being decentralized in terms of resources. This dissertation posits that religion and natural resources play an essential role in this framework: religious motivations are important for the centralization of operations, while the presence of natural resources guarantees that a new affiliate will be able to finance its operations even in cases when the parent organization is unable or unwilling to provide financial support. To explore the relationship between organizational survival strategy, religion and natural resources this work first compiles a dataset on all Sub-Saharan African countries and then conducts both a quantitative descriptive analysis, as well as a qualitative analysis of the case of Nigeria.
Open Access
Turkey's foreign policy implementation in sub-Saharan Africa: a post-international approach
(Cambridge University Press, 2013-09) İpek, V.; Biltekin, G.
Turkey's activism in Africa has been extensively noted. It has been argued that non-state actors like business and civil society organizations take part in Turkey's Africa initiative. Nevertheless, state/non-state interaction in Turkey's foreign policy implementation has not been accounted for in theoretical terms in Turkish foreign policy literature. This paper combines post-international theory and foreign policy implementation in looking at Turkey's foreign policy towards sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that adapting to the multi-centric world, the Turkish government has moved beyond conventional state-to-state dealings in implementing its foreign policy and increasingly relies on the cooperation of non-state actors.