African Affairs Advance Access originally published online on May 27, 2009
African Affairs 2009 108(432):453-473; doi:10.1093/afraf/adp038
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Peace and Power Sharing in Africa: A Not So Obvious Relationship
Andreas Mehler (mehler{at}giga-hamburg.de) is Director of the Institute of African Affairs at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg
Peace accords usually involve top politicians and military leaders, who negotiate, sign, and/or benefit from an agreement. What is conspicuously absent from such negotiations is broad-based participation by those who should benefit in the first place: citizens. More specifically, the local level of security provision and insecurity production is rarely taken into account. The analysis of recent African peace agreements shows important variations in power-sharing devices and why it is important to ask who is sharing power with whom. Experiences with power sharing are mixed and far less positive than assumed by outside negotiators.