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IDS Research Associate Richard Longhurst and the Director of Teaching and Alumni Relations, Robert Nurick hosted an alumni dinner in Brighton.

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Governance Team
Researching public authority in changing environments

Global Uncertainties: Security in an Africa of Networked, Multi-Level Governance


The Research Programme: How individuals, communities and nation states form their ideas and beliefs about security and insecurity will form the basis of this project, 1 of 14 fellowships funded by the ESRC/ AHRC as part of the wider RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme.

The programme of research being conducted by David Leonard and his junior associates centres on how the various institutions responsible for the production of security and the management of conflict in Sub-Saharan African societies do, could and should evolve in response to the presence of violent conflict.

The programme is built on the observation that all governance (especially in Africa) is multi-levelled and networked - from the village to the international organisation, and well beyond what is specified in formal government structures.

Thus the focus is not only on the ways in which key conflict-management institutions evolve themselves but also on the changing ways in which the networks in which they are embedded actually operate. This leading edge research challenges theories about the state, state formation, and sovereignty as well as the dynamics of violent conflict as presented in the dominant current work on Africa.

The main objective is to improve the functioning of the various institutions responsible for the production of security and the management of conflict in Sub-Saharan African societies, particularly in the presence of violent conflict.

Institutions that manage and/or provide protection against such conflicts include: the armed forces, the police, the courts (civil as well as criminal), 'traditional' institutions of local governance, elections (and other methods of choosing leadership), international institutions (such as the United Nations, African Union, UN High Commission for Refugees, the World Court, the World Food Programme, and the World Bank), and the community of international donor nations.

In order to achieve the main objectives the researchers will seek to improve their understanding of the ways in which these institutions function under conflict and in the conditions of networked, multilevel governance that prevail in Africa.

The Programme Researchers are: David K. Leonard (director) together with Jeremy Allouche, Niagale Bagayoko-Penone, Peter Houtzager, Sidibe Kalilou, Freida M'Cormack, Ferdinand Mugumo Mushi, Thierry Nlandu, Mohamed Samantar, Anna Schmidt, James Vincent, and Patrick Zadi Zadi.

Countries in which field research has been or will be conducted are: Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Somalia (Somaliland and Puntland).

The Objective of the research is the identification of institutional strategies for recovering the multiple aspects of human securityin countries that have been fractured by violent conflict.

Key Questions the programme seeks to answer are:

How do conflict management institutions evolve under the stress of prolonged violent conflict and how can they best contribute to the recovery of human security? Institutions under consideration include elections, elected and traditional local government, local courts, the police, and the armed services.

What are the networks of relationships withinand between states, communities, NGOs, international organisations, and international donors for the management and resolution of intrastate conflictsand how might their effectiveness be improved?

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Global Uncertainties