Pre-Emptive Peace and Security Approach in Africa-China Security Cooperation

Abstract

Africa is a continent that is perturbed by a series of endemic conflicts and insecurity. This precarious situation in Africa has captured the attention of not only Africa’s traditional partners in the West but also the attention of emerging economies with China taking the lead. The People’s Republic of China has geo-strategically begun to play a prominent role in the political and economic spheres of many African countries including the domain of security. Africa’s security challenges are believed to have defiled extant solutions. This has led to the opinion that existing security and conflict approaches, theories and multilateral intervention programs in Africa have not given solace to Africa’s perilous situations for two reasons. First, because most of these approaches, theories and security architecture were designed for resolving inter-state disputes. Second, with the emergence of new security challenges, the UN and other regional organisations remain woefully ill-equipped to address many of the 21^st century challenges to international peace and security. However, this has called for alternative approaches and ways to prevent and resolve Africa’s insecurity. It is in that vein that this article pivots its argument on the fact that the solution to Africa’s security challenges does not lie only in liberal western approaches and theories, but in other alternatives such as the pre-emptive peace and security approach. The pre-emptive peace and security approach revolves around the anticipation of factors that could cause conflict and insecurity and putting in place necessary mechanisms that could forestall and resolve these conflicts even before the early warning signs show up and prevent them from escalation when they arise. In many ways, this alternative approach prioritises socio-economic means and human development as the rationale for answers and solutions to many of Africa’s insecurity problems.