Civil Militia: Africa's Intractable Security Menace? [Hardcover]

David J. Francis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0754644529 | ISBN-13: 978-0754644521

This volume critically engages with the phenomenon of civil militias in Africa, especially the nature of threats and challenges they pose to national and human security. It questions why the African political scene is increasingly inundated with the activities of civil militias, examines the socio-political and economic conditions that trigger and/or encourage and sustain the operations of civil militias, and investigates the dominant motivations of African civil militias. In the face of this complex security emergency, the volume conceptualizes and theorizes the phenomenon of civil militias; focuses the academic debate and policy on the links between civil militias and the growing cycle of state failure, instability, collapse and fragmentation in Africa; broadly and critically explores and expounds the short-term security consequences of the operations of civil militias; and articulates a corpus of policy-relevant knowledge. The book is ideally suited to courses on African studies, security and peace studies and military studies but would also be of interest to practitioners.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David J. Francis is Lecturer and Founder-Director of the Africa Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Co (August 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754644529
• ISBN-13: 978-0754644521
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,447,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Exciting at first, but then..., May 30, 2010

By 

Jerimiah Johnson "Militia Man" (Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Civil Militia: Africa's Intractable Security Menace? (Hardcover)

As a PhD student studying the emergence of civil defense forces in Africa and other places, I was particularly interested in getting my hands on this book. Here is a summation of the pros and cons. Pros: It covers a large field of a lightly covered subject in security studies and brings together a number of African scholars to address the topic. Overall, an interesting read that gives a nice overview of a rarely addressed, but emerging security concern.

Cons: their is very little objectivity in the writings; each author seems to address the problems with civil militias and rarely address or glance over the benefits. David Francis provides a very nice introduction to the work, but most of the authors seem to veer off onto their own track. For example some use civil militia, paramilitary, civil defense force and death squads interchangeably. But they all have different qualities. This may be more of an organizational problem with the book, which became quite apparent when I found numerous grammatical errors in most chapters. The grammar issue my be due to English as second language writers, but that is what copy-editors are for. What happened to the copy-editor at Ashgate? While most of the chapters are organized well enough to follow, some, like Chapter 9 are rather painful. There are too many scattered ideas forced together that in the end, say very little and leave the reader disappointed. Finally, some chapters are backed up with weak or limited citations, which may be a reflection of limited data or poor scholarship. At this point in my research, I'll assume its the former.