Security market in Africa: the place of Russia and new opportunities

Security market in Africa:
the place of Russia and new opportunities


Loshkariov I.D.,

Department of Political Theory, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, ivan1loshkariov@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 639886 | ORCID: 0000-0002-7507-1669 |

Kopyttsev I.S.,

Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Institute of International Studies, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, kopitsev53.ru@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 1210425 | ORCID: 0000-0002-5284-8682 |

Article received: 2023.11.03 20:52. Accepted: 2024.03.13 20:53


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2024.04.03
EDN: VSACVB


For citation:

Loshkariov I.D., Kopyttsev I.S. Security market in Africa: the place of Russia and new opportunities. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No. 4. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2024.04.03. EDN: VSACVB (In Russ.)



Abstract

The article analyses the market of security services in Africa also examining the position which Russia holds in the current structure of supply and demand. Thus, a key goal is to determine the most promising directions within which Russian influence in terms of security provision can be widened. For this particular reason, the authors focus on supply and demand in the market of security services in Africa. In other words, the article consistently examines the main security challenges faced by regional governments and, at the same time, Russia’s successful experience in the security provision in Africa. In order to provide for the structural examination of customers’ preferences the authors highlight six groups of African states. Such a classification is based on the specific features, the severeness and the number of threats faced by the government and allows to study demand characteristics in details. At the same time the analysis of the Russian approach to cooperation with African states illustrates both advantages and disadvantages of the security services provided by Moscow. Suchwise, the key factors which predetermine the Kremlin’s attractiveness as a security provider are the adherence to the three-noes concept, including non-interference in the internal affairs of security partners, readiness to find compromises and to adopt a realistic approach to goal-setting. Russia’s successful experience in combatting rebels as well as the export of weapons are two components that also play an important role in the strategy adopted by Moscow. However current prospects are limited by the foreign pressure put on Russian allies in the region. As a result, the most promising direction to expand Russian influence in Africa in terms of security provision relates to the cooperation with the states that face a crisis affecting all the spheres of social life and that suffer from neo-colonial policies of former colonial powers. Moreover, it seems essential to develop forms and tools of military assistance for African security forces.

Keywords
security challenges, security provider, Russia, Africa, demand and supply, security services market.

Дополнительные материалы

References

Anderson, D.M., & McKnight, J. (2015). Understanding al-Shabaab: clan, Islam and insurgency in Kenya. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 9(3), 536-557. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2015.1082254

Avant, D. (2004). The privatization of security and change in the control of force. International Studies Perspectives, 5(2), 153-157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-3577.2004.00165.x

Bellany, I. (1981). Towards a theory of international security. Political Studies, 29(1), 100-105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1981.tb01276.x

Fung, C.J., & Lam, S. (2021). Contesting roles: rising powers as “net providers of security”. Journal of Global Security Studies, 6(3), ogaa034. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogaa034

Gana, M.L., & Bukar, H.M. (2023). Counterinsurgency in Nigeria: a review of the counterinsurgency approaches of Nigeria against the Islamist Boko Haram. International Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences and Business, 2(1), 57-72.

Geddes, B., Wright, J., & Frantz, E. (2018). How dictatorships work. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316336182

George, A.L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. Cambridge: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146707305480

Grissom, A.R., Charap, S., Cheravitch, J., Hanson, R., Massicot, D., Mouton. C.A., & Reimer, R.J. (2022). Russia’s growing presence in Africa: geostrategic assessment. RAND Corporation. Research Report. https://doi.org/10.7249/RR4399

Kimokoti, R.W., & Hamer, D.H. (2008). Nutrition, health, and aging in sub-Saharan Africa. Nutrition reviews, 66(11), 611-623. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2008.00113.x

Krahmann, E. (2012). From ‘mercenaries’ to ‘private security contractors’: the (re) construction of armed security providers in international legal discourses. Millennium, 40(2), 343-363. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829811426673

Lee, A., & Paine, J. (2019). What were the consequences of decolonization? International Studies Quarterly, 63(2), 406-416. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqy064

Loader, I. (1999). Consumer culture and the commodification of policing and security. Sociology, 33(2), 373-392. https://doi.org/10.1177/S003803859900022X

Longhurst, K. (2002). From security consumer to security provider-Poland and Transatlantic security in the twenty-first century. Defence Studies, 2(2), 50-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702430208405025

Mandel, R. (2002). Armies without states: the privatization of security. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.https://doi.org/10.1515/9781626372900

Martin, J.F. (2019). The Front(s) for the Liberation of Cabinda in Angola: A Phantom Insurgency. In de Vries, L., Englebert, P., & Schomerus, M. (Ed.), Secessionism in African Politics (pp. 207-227). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90206-7_8

Matsinhe, D.M., & Valoi, E. (2019). The genesis of insurgency in northern Mozambique. Southern Africa Report 27. Institute for Security Studies.

Medcalf, R. (2012). Unselfish giants? Understanding China and India as security providers. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 66(5), 554-566. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2011.570244

Mendez, R.P. (1999). Peace as a global public good. In Kaul, I., Grunberg, I., & Stern, M.A. (Ed.), Global Public Goods. International Cooperation in the 21st Century (pp. 382-417). New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195130529.003.0020

Mukherjee, A. (2014). India as a net security provider: concept and Impediments. Policy brief. RSIS.

Nwangwu, C. (2023). Neo-Biafra separatist agitations, state repression and insecurity in South-East, Nigeria. Society, 60, 40-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-022-00782-0

Ogar, J.N., Nwoye, L., & Bassey, S.A. (2019). Archetype of globalization: illusory comfort of neo-colonialism in Africa. International Journal of Humanities and Innovation, 2(3), 90-95. https://doi.org/10.33750/ijhi.v2i3.46

Plaut, M. (2016). Understanding Eritrea: inside Africa’s most repressive state. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pye, L.W. (1958). The non-Western political process. The Journal of Politics, 20(3), 468-486. https://doi.org/10.2307/2127224

Rupiya, M., Moyo, G., & Laugesen, H. (2015). The new African civil-military relations. The African Public Policy and Research Institute.

Schiel, R., Powell, J., & Faulkner, C. (2021). Mutiny in Africa, 1950-2018. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 38(4), 481-499. https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894220934882

Schultze-Kraft, M. (2017). Understanding organised violence and crime in political settlements: oil wars, petro-criminality and amnesty in the Niger delta. Journal of International Development, 29(5), 613-627. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3287

Shepherd, A.J.K. (2015). The European security continuum and the EU as an international security provider. Global Society, 29(2), 156-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2015.1018146

Siegle, J. (2021). Russia and Africa: expanding influence and instability. Russia’s Global Reach: A Security and Statecraft Assessment (pp. 80-90). Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Taylor, I. (2019). France à fric: the CFA zone in Africa and neocolonialism. Third World Quarterly, Latest Articles, 40(4), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1585183

Walt, S.M. (1991). The renaissance of security studies. International studies quarterly, 35(2), 211-239. https://doi.org/10.2307/2600471

Williams, P.D. (2007). Thinking about security in Africa. International Affairs, 83(6), 1021-1038. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2007.00671.x

Adu, Y.N., Bockeria, S.A., Degterev, D.A., Mezyaev, A.B., & Shamarov, P.V. (2023). Non-Western peacekeeping as a factor in a multipolar world: outlines of a research program. Bulletin of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Series: International relations, 23(3), 415-434. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-0660-2023-23-3-415-434

Amara, D., Degterev, D.A., & Egamov, B.Kh. (2022). “Common interest” in the UN peacekeeping operations in Africa: an applied analysis of the personnel. National Strategy Issues, 2(71), 76-101. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.52311/2079-3359_2022_2_76

Bogdanov, K.V., Kadyrmambetov, T.M., Kobrinskaya, I.Ya., & Frumkin, B.E. (2023). “Pivot to the South”: challenges and opportunities for Russia and post-Soviet states. Russia and the New States of Eurasia, 2, 71-90. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.20542/2073-4786-2023-2-71-90

Bratersky, M.V. (2018). Russia and peacekeeping operations: conceptual and practical components of Russian policy. Bulletin of International Organizations: Education, Science, New Economy, 13(1), 157-170. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17323/1996-7845-2018-01-09

Degterev, D.A., & Petrovskaya, O.V. (2022). Peacemaking in a changing world. National Strategy Issues, 2, 10-13. (In Russ.)

Deich, T.L., & Vertashov, Yu.D. (2018). Russian-African relations in the context of Africa’ “turn” to the East. World Economy and International Relations, 62(10), 124-133. (In Russ.) https://doi. org/10.20542/0131-2227-2018-62-10-124-133

Efremenko, D.V. (2022). Russia’s relations with African countries in the light of the special military operation in Ukraine. Outlines of global Transformations: Politics, Economics, Law, 15(4), 60-78. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31249/kgt/2022.04.04

Gavristova, T.M., & Khokhol’kova, N.E. (Ed.). (2020). Afrika: postkolonial’nyi diskurs [Africa: postcolonial discourse]. Yaroslavl’: Filigran’. (In Russ.)

Karaganov, S.A. (2020). New ideas for yourself and the world. Russia in Global Affairs, 18, 2, 21-32. (In Russ.)

Kopyttsev, I.S. (2022). Conflict in Tigray: parties’ potential, limits and tactics. The Herald of the Diplomatic Academy of the MFA of Russia. Russia and the World, 32(2), 102-127. (In Russ.)

Korendyasov, Ye.N. (2015). Is Russia coming back to Africa? Asia and Africa Today, 5, 2-9. (In Russ.)

Loshkariov, I.D. (Ed.) (2024). Rossiya v Afrike: ot novykh sfer sotrudnichestva k novomu imidzhu [Russia in Africa: From new areas of cooperation to a new image]. Moscow: Aspect Press. (In Russ.)

Maslov, A.A., & Suslov, D.V. (2022). Return to Africa: how to make it a Russian priority. Russia in Global Affairs, 20(1), 130-148. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31278/1810-6439-2022-20-1-130-148

Nozick, R. (2008). Anarchy, state and utopia. (Russ. ed.: Nozick, R. Anarkhiya, gosudarstvo i utopiya. Moscow: IRISEN).

Shepovalenko, M.Yu. (Ed.) (2022). Goryachaya Afrika [Hot Africa]. Moscow: Tsentr analiza strategii i tekhnologii. (In Russ.)

Sidorova, G.M. (2017). Army and Society in Africa: History and Modernity. Outlines of global Transformations: Politics, Economics, Law, 10(3), 130-143. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.23932/2542-0240-2017-10-3-130-143

Sidorova, G.M. (2021). Africa chooses Russia: military and technical cooperation gains ground. The Herald of the Diplomatic Academy of the MFA of Russia. Russia and the World, 27(1), 168-185. (In Russ.)

Smith, A. (2022). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. (Russ. ed.: Smith, A. Issledovanie o prirode i prichinakh bogatstva narodov. Moscow: AST).

Trenin, D.V. (2023). Not “against” but “for”. Russia in Global Affairs, 21(5), 56-68. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31278/1810-6439-2023-21-5-56-68

Content No. 4, 2024

See also:


Arbatova N.K.,
Climate threats – a new dimension of EU security. – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No6

Sheynis V.L.,
Russia’s national security. Durability trial. Part III (The end). – Polis. Political Studies. 2010. No2

Sheynis V.L.,
Russia’s national security. Durability trial (Part 1). – Polis. Political Studies. 2009. No5

Sheynis V.L.,
Russia’s national security. durability trial. Part II. – Polis. Political Studies. 2010. No1

Timofeev I.N.,
Security Dilemma. Risk of Armed Conflict between the Great Powers. – Polis. Political Studies. 2009. No4

 

   

Introducing an article



Polis. Political Studies
6 2004


Lapkin V.V.
Reflecting on the Nature of Social Interactions...

 The article text
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991