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"Based on extensive empirical research, Katharina P.W. Döring analyses the politics surrounding military deployments in the Sahel since 2012 and stresses the agency of regional organizations in African-led military interventions. Drawing on insights from critical geography, she considers the role that space plays in the power dynamics of the region"--

Challenging western and francocentric accounts of military interventions in the Sahel, Katharina P. W. Döring foregrounds the response of African regional organizations to armed violence since 2012. Based on extensive empirical research, she reconstructs the experiences of African intervenors in planning and deploying missions in the region. The book outlines the complex constellation of actors who shape African military politics, including presidents, diplomats, and bureaucrats. Drawing upon insights from critical geography, Döring considers the oft-neglected role that space - at once relational and changing - plays in the power dynamics of the region. In so doing, she offers a fresh perspective on military deployments and their politics. Amidst the current resurgence of nationalist geopolitics, this study and its findings have far-reaching implications for the analysis of military politics in Africa and beyond.

In recent times, West Africa has (once again) gained international attention as a region hit by various crises. Islamic extremism; transnational drug economies; the smuggling of people, cars, arms, et cetera; as well as transnational interventions have come to most visibly represent particular contemporary globalization processes in West Africa. Paired with already widespread cleavages due to socioeconomic hardship affecting vast percentages of the West African population, these dynamics point to the (violent) reordering of space, described as de- and re-territorialization, and are based on different — often conflicting — ways of (re-)imagining space in Africa. Moreover, the implications of these dynamics appear to reach far beyond the confines of West Africa — as most dramatically evidenced in debates on the current European "refugee crisis" and the fear of terrorist attacks in Europe. Hence, Western powers have come to consider the perceived destabilization of the region and in particular the seeming proliferation of "weak" or "failed states" as a threat to the territorial organization of the international state system and, as such, have intervened in various ways in order to counter the trend.

"Ce volume édité offre des nouvelles perspectives sur la vie intérieure de l'Architecture africaine de paix et de sécurité (APSA) et présente aux spécialistes dand la domaine paix et securité africaine des approches épistémologiques, conceptuelles et méthodologiques innovantes. Basé sur une ouverture intellectuelle et un intérêt pour les perspectives transdisciplinaires, le volume remet en question les courants dominants, nous invitant à réfléchir sur les pratiques de recherche elles-mêmes. S'appuyant sur les perspectives des études globales et des études critiques internationales, les auteurs suivent des approches inductives et laissent les données empiriques enrichir leurs cadres théoriques et leurs outils conceptuels. Dans cette entreprise, ils se concentrent sur les acteurs, les pratiques et les discours impliqués qui donne forme aux institutions regionales. Les analyses ici-présentes examine les hypothèses qui informent habituellement les études sur le régionalisme et la gouvernance en Afrique"--

As essential components of globalization, the study of practices and processes of space formation promotes a nuanced understanding of globalization. How do people create spaces for social action under the global condition, especially since the nineteenth century, when global interconnectedness increased rapidly? We explore the problem through specific case studies. Anthropologists, historians, geographers, sociologists, global studies scholars, and cultural studies scholars examine the agency of, e.g., members and staff of African regional organizations, Indian migrant workers, female GDR activists, Soviet planning experts, or US novelists. By studying elites as well as middle-class and micro-entrepreneurs – i.e. more and less influential actors – we encourage reflection on the relationship between power and space and examine how spatial entrepreneurs attempt to influence the shaping of space and their spatial literacy. The analysis aims at a better understanding of the different globalization projects, their crisis-like clashes, and the resulting conflictual development of spatial orders

"This edited volume offers new insights into the inner life of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and introduces scholars of African security dynamics to innovative epistemological, conceptual and methodological approaches. Based on intellectual openness and an interest in transdisciplinary perspectives, the volume challenges existing orthodoxies, poses new questions and opens a discussion on actual research practice. Drawing on Global Studies and critical International Studies perspectives, the authors follow inductive approaches and let the empirical data enrich their theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools. In this endeavor they focus on actors, practices and narratives involved in African Peace and Security and move beyond the often Western-centric premises of research carried out within rigid disciplinary boundaries"--