African Security is in transition. This issue marks the end of an era and the start of another. We (Andy and Temitope) were appointed in fall 2018, after the untimely passing of Colonel James Hentz, the founding editor-in-chief of the journal. James Hentz, up until his death, had laid a solid foundation upon which African Security was built, and demonstrated a strong commitment to publishing fine-grained, cutting-edge and rigorously peer-reviewed research on issues pertaining to various aspects of security on the African continent. Ulf Engel, Professor of Politics in Africa at the University of Leipzig, served as editor-in-chief when Hentz died. We were appointed shortly afterward.
While building on the excellent quality of scholarship, which emanated from the volumes published since the inception of the journal, we strove to enhance Hentz’s legacy by ensuring that African Security would become a preeminent scholarly source on issues relating to security on the African continent. We also ensured that it would be able to facilitate the publication of various views on the connectedness between African security issues and the global dimensions and flows of traditional and contemporary threats to the continent. While those were clearly lofty ideals, those goals were accomplished under our watch.
Over the past five years, the journal has grown exponentially in terms of its readership, authorship, and metrics such as impact factor, which currently sits at a healthy 2.0 (up from 0.0 in September 2018). We also expanded the number of manuscript contributors and the range of the subject matter they brought to the pages of African Security. This was achieved, in large part, by embracing a broader conception of security; one that was not limited to military-strategic security.
In this final editorial, we provide a synopsis of the papers in this issue and we formally introduce you to the new joint editors-in-chief of the journal – our successors.
In the first paper, “The Inadvertent Influence of Peacekeeping and Peace Support Operations on Ghana’s Armed Forces,” Andrew E. Yaw Tchie engages with a politically intriguing reality: the vast experiences and recognition garnered by the Ghana’s Armed Forces in UN peacekeeping operations and African peace support operations have not translated into capacity to deal effectively with emerging security threats in Ghana. Tchie argues that the mechanics of the metastasizing threats in West Africa are texturally different from peacekeeping and peace support operations. Therefore, those operations and the doctrines undergirding them may put African countries such as Ghana at greater risk vis-à-vis security challenges at home. This paper makes for an interesting read in that it addresses an issue that has yet to generate much attention in the security literature.
The second paper in this issue “Securing Interests or Undermining Sovereignty? The Political Implications of Foreign Military Basing in Africa” continues the military thematic with an intersectional lens. Felix I. Oyosoro explores the geo-politically consequential issue of foreign military bases in Africa. The author problematizes the tension between strategic socio-economic and political interests on one hand and the erosion of sovereignty on the other. Oyosoro’s approach is sober, analytically balanced and refreshing.
A book review by MD Nazmul Arefin concludes this issue of African Security. Arefin engages with the Yearbook on the African Union edited by Ulf Engel. Engel is no stranger to the African Union. He has produced a constellation of immensely in-depth and highly sophisticated compendia on this regional security organization. Arefin’s review provides a fine, but critical, entry point into the series.
We are pleased to introduce you to the new joint editors-in-chief of African Security, Dr. Cyril Obi, and Dr. Nathan Andrews. Obi is program director, African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), New York. A colossus in the fields of African security, development, peace and conflict studies, Obi has produced over 100 groundbreaking scientific papers. Andrews is associate professor, Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Andrews is a former Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (2015–2017), Canada’s most prestigious program of its kind and the recipient of the highly regarded Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (2021). He has produced over 70 peer-reviewed works. As outgoing editors, we are delighted to know that African Security journal is in outstanding hands.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge our deep appreciation to all the contributors, subscribers, reviewers, and readers who have been on this rigorous but exciting journey with us over these past five years. We also want to thank the support team at Taylor & Francis for their painstaking efforts in ensuring that each issue of every volume maintained the highest of standards. O d’igba kan na (see you later).