South Africa wants Africa’s wars to end, mainly because they pose a grave danger to its national security — the kind of danger that creates floods of refugees, hinders regional development, and keeps foreign investment away. So, for South Africa, assisting broken states in its own backyard, or providing indirect support to others who do, may yield rich dividends in terms of its national interests and commitment to create a “better Africa”.
The problem that South Africa faces is to understand what form of foreign assistance is needed to stop people taking up arms during or shortly after peace negotiations. This is largely an African problem according to United Nations (UN) officials, and this despite several international and local attempts to keep conflict under control. To improve this record, much has been said and written about ‘post-conflict reconstruction’ and the degree to which it can nurture and sustain peace agreements. While there is no common definition of the term, it is used broadly to describe a foreign intervention which aims to rebuild a country devastated by war. This kind of assistance, the experts say, extends beyond keeping peace and disarming combatants, to providing the building blocks for self-governance, security, economic exchange, and development — for creating a ‘minimally capable state’, as Hamre and Sullivan (2002) suggest.
Bu dinamik içerisinde, iki taraflı, çok taraflı ya da karışık yapılarla daha etkili işbirliği gerçekleştirmek amacıyla, sistemlerin dış politikası çerçevesinde ülkeler gelişmektedirler.
Afrika kıtasında da bu durum farklı değildir. Altmışlı yıllarda doksanlı yıllara demokratikleşmesinin satışıyla geçerek bağımsızlıklar döneminden küreselleşmeye geçiş dönemine kadar; kıta özellikle bölgesel örğütüyle (Afrika Birliği) kalkınmasını güçlendirme amacıyla ya da ortakların yenilenmesi arayışı içindedir.
Bu perspektifte Türkiye, giderek göz ardı edilemeyecek potansiyel bir ortak olduğunun belirtilerini göstermektedir. Gerçekte, işbirliğine yönelik ilişkilerini kurulması için ağır basan ortak tarih, coğrafi yakınlık, kültürel benzerlik gibi faktörlere bakarsak; Atatürk’ün Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin Afrika Birliği’ne üye ülkelerle etkili ve tutarlı bir ilişki kurmak için oldukça iyi fırsatlar sunduğunu görmekteyiz.
Tarihsel alanda Türkiye, Afrika’ya nazaran sömürge tarihine sahip değildir. Coğrafi olarak bu devlet; Afrika, Asya ve Avrupa arasında bulunmaktadır. Kültürel düzeyde ise Türk milleti, Afrika devletleriyle yakınlaşmayı kolaylaştırabilecek veya ilişkileri sağlamlaştırabilecek kültürel zenginliğe sahiptir.
Before examining the issue of peacekeeping and security in Africa,I think there is a necessity to take a look at the underlying reasons of problems and conflicts in Africa. Within this context, it would be possible to analyze peacekeeping operations and evaluate them. It would then be appropriate to consider Turkey’s endeavours as well as perspectives of Turkey’s cooperation with African countries in the field of security.
Indeed, there are various causes of conflicts in Africa. First of all, it can be said that there is, to a large extent, an impact of problems created by colonialism on African continent . Colonial powers had drawn border lines between African countries taking into account their own economic, political , commercial and strategic interests. To observe this.there is no need to mention the names of countries, it is sufficient,however, to take a look at a map of African continent.
Due to the delimitation of the borders by colonial powers , in an arbitrary manner,various african nations, ethnic groups and tribes were divided between different countries. For example, among others, it is possible to mention Hausas and Yorubas within this context. Individuals belonging to the same tribe or ethnic group remain divided between English or French speaking countries and their contacts were weakened.
Desertification affects arid regions throughout the world, causing underdevelopment of economies and inflicting destitution on the populations of vast areas and threatening them with famine. Reversing the processes by which desertification invades arable lands turning them into desolate wastes is one of the most crucial challenges facing the communities and nations of arid regions.
AGENDA 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) emphasizes the need and proposes a wide range of activities to address land degradation in general and desertification in particular. As a response to this challenge, more than 190 countries are Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Desertification occurs because drylands ecosystems, which cover over one third of the world's land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use that result in underdevelopment of economies and in entranced poverty among the affected population. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing, and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the land's productivity leading to underdevelopment of economies. Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. In addition, some one billion people in over one hundred countries are at risk. These people include many of the world's poorest, most marginalized, and politically weak citizens.
The international community has long recognized that desertification is a major economic, social and environmental problem of concern to many countries in all regions of the world. In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) adopted a Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD). Unfortunately, despite this and other efforts, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) concluded in 1991 that the problem of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas had intensified, undermining the development of economies as poverty increased, although there were "local examples of success".