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Selected Works

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

National security

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Peace and Conflict Studies

Drug Trafficking And Threats To National And Regional Security In West Africa, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, John Pokoo Jan 2013

Drug Trafficking And Threats To National And Regional Security In West Africa, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, John Pokoo

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

In less than one and a half decades West Africa has become a major transit and repackaging hub for cocaine and heroin flowing from the Latin American and Asian producing areas to European markets. Drug trafficking is not new to the region; the phenomenon rapidly expanded in the mid-2000s as a result of a strategic shift of Latin American drug syndicates towards the rapidly growing European market, leading UNODC to state in 2008 that "…the crisis of drug trafficking … is gaining attention. Alarm bells are ringing …West Africa has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. This is more than …


Potential New Hotspots For Extremism And Opportunities To Mitigate The Danger: The Case Of The Sahel, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning Sep 2010

Potential New Hotspots For Extremism And Opportunities To Mitigate The Danger: The Case Of The Sahel, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

West Africa and increasingly some of its Sahelian states namely Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are prey to a number of factors that make them suceptible to illicit trafficking, organized crime and terrorism. They are ranked among the most vulnerable 10 out of the 177 countries listed in this context. The structural weakness of the Sahelian states economies, characterized by small domestic markets and an over-reliance on only one or two export commodities, renders them highly susceptible to external shocks and low intensity security threats. The huge, open expanses of land with few settlements and a limited number of …


The Role Of Private Military Companies In Us-Africa Policy, Emmanuel Aning, Thomas Jaye, Samuel Atuobi Nov 2008

The Role Of Private Military Companies In Us-Africa Policy, Emmanuel Aning, Thomas Jaye, Samuel Atuobi

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

This article discusses the increasing use of private military companies (PMCs) in United States' security policy in Africa, and examines this phenomenon in relation to the US' various military training programmes on the continent. We argue that the increasing use of PMCs in US security policy has evolved due to two critical and mutually dependent developments; African state weakness and resource stringency on the one hand, and the US's overwhelming security commitments around the world, combined with military downsizing, on the other. The article further argues that the involvement of PMCs is to a large extent informed by US concerns …


From 'Voluntary' To A 'Binding' Process: Towards The Securitisation Of Small Arms, Emmanuel Aning Mar 2008

From 'Voluntary' To A 'Binding' Process: Towards The Securitisation Of Small Arms, Emmanuel Aning

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

This article analyses the issue of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation in both Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Specifically, it assesses the extent to which both Ghana and ECOWAS have 'securitised' this particular issue through an initial 'voluntary' instrument first in 1998 and extended in 2001 until the signing in June 2006 of a legally and politically binding ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and Other Related Materials. To do so, the article begins by setting out the scope and a brief history of the SALW problem in West …


Keeping The Peace In Africa: Challenges And Opportunities, Emmanuel Aning Dec 2004

Keeping The Peace In Africa: Challenges And Opportunities, Emmanuel Aning

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

Focuses on the challenges and opportunities for peacekeeping efforts in Africa. Shift in the approach to peacekeeping and the desirability of such efforts; Structural weaknesses that may continue to engender conflicts in Africa; Significance of the establishment of the International Criminal Court.