Security assistance to Africa: new Cold War or new public goods?

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, security assistance to Africa has become increasingly common, as the continent has been the world’s most volatile region. This paper proposes an analytical framework to comprehensively investigate the motivations behind security assistance to Africa and the consequences it may trigger. While previous research has largely overlooked the public goods attribute of security assistance, we argue that this attribute is crucial for understanding the security assistance provided by major powers to Africa, especially in the context of geopolitical competition. Based on analyses of security assistance to Africa by major powers, this paper contends that previous assistance is more about pursuing a veneer of legitimacy and masking actual geopolitical ambitions by emphasising its public goods attribute. As a typical recipient region in Africa, the case of the Sahel shows that the geopolitical competition among major powers in this region through security assistance has caused a serious security traffic jam and other concerns. Thus, there is a future need to pay more attention to and develop security assistance as a public good to avoid walking into a new Cold War.

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