The Centre hosted a pivotal two-day workshop delving into the escalating influence of multi-actor security networks on West Africa’s security dynamics. This event, the second in a series under the Security Programmes in Disordered States Initiative, gathered leading academics, policy practitioners, and think tank experts from eleven West African nations and the United States to explore how diverse collaborations are reshaping global security paradigms, particularly within the West African context.
Organized by the Centre for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with KAIPTC and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the workshop aimed to dissect the prevailing security landscape in West Africa and the Sahel amidst the current global order.
Participants engaged in discussions on how West African states navigate their security partnerships with both traditional and emerging actors, fostering a broader policy and scholarly community interested in these critical issues.
The acting Commandant of the KAIPTC, Air Commodore David Anetey Akrong, highlighted the post-Cold War rise of these multi-actor security networks.
He explained that these collaborations emerged to tackle global security challenges through mechanisms less reliant on traditional hierarchies. These arrangements often originate within states grappling with escalating violence and insecurity, leading national leaders and even their opponents to forge partnerships with foreign states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), private contractors, and international corporations.
The growth of multi-actor security networks means that global security efforts are no longer just governments collaborating on global security,” Air Commodore Akrong stated.
He emphasized that joint efforts are crucial in shaping global stability, hoping that the workshop’s resolutions would significantly influence security policies within the sub-region.
A researcher at the American University, Professor Sussana Campbell underscored a crucial shift in understanding global security. She explained that the project’s central goal was to reframe perceptions of security provision, focusing on who is responsible and what it entails, and to better understand the choices states make in governing their own territory. Professor Campbell emphasized moving beyond the traditional notion that only powerful states shape the world order, stressing that the programme “sought to truly comprehend the impact of choices made by civil society organizations in enhancing security”.