Since the end of the Cold War, West Africa has continued to languish in protracted insecurity sit... more Since the end of the Cold War, West Africa has continued to languish in protracted insecurity situations. The history of the sub-region is synonymous to violent conflicts such as civil wars, political crisis, resource conflicts, coup d’états, militancy, religious extremism, ethnic unrests, insurgencies, terrorism, and so on. Most of these security challenges are products of proto-nationalism; that is, a deliberate manipulation of nationalist identities (like ethnicity, religion, language, descent, et cetera) by political elites who use them as instruments to fulfil their self-serving political and economic agenda. This has polarized countries and communities by creating deep feelings of marginalization, unwontedness, ostracism, and exclusion. Interestingly is how this insecurity situation is being able to spill-over and across state borders rendering the entire West African security architecture precarious and unstable. It is to this end that this paper interrogates the role of prot...
Since the end of the Cold War, West Africa has continued to languish in protracted insecurity sit... more Since the end of the Cold War, West Africa has continued to languish in protracted insecurity situations. The history of the sub-region is synonymous to violent conflicts such as civil wars, political crisis, resource conflicts, coup d’états, militancy, religious extremism, ethnic unrests, insurgencies, terrorism, and so on. Most of these security challenges are products of proto-nationalism; that is, a deliberate manipulation of nationalist identities (like ethnicity, religion, language, descent, et cetera) by political elites who use them as instruments to fulfil their self-serving political and economic agenda. This has polarized countries and communities by creating deep feelings of marginalization, unwontedness, ostracism, and exclusion. Interestingly is how this insecurity situation is being able to spill-over and across state borders rendering the entire West African security architecture precarious and unstable. It is to this end that this paper interrogates the role of prot...
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Papers by I. Olanrewaju