Funded by BMBF

The competence network African non-military conflict intervention practices (ANCIP) combines empirical research with theory building and strategic policy advice. Its object is research into the non-military intervention practices of the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), which have been neglected in the academic debate to date. The network aims to strengthen expertise on peace and security policy relevant actors and their actions in Africa. The goals of the collaborative project are to build an online database of non-military interventions by AU and RECs (starting in 2004), to empirically reconstruct non-military intervention practices and routines of African actors, and to develop theory based on this information. The comparative identification of best practices and lessons learned provides strategic starting points for external support of conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. Ulf Engel (University of Leipzig), Antonia Witt (HSFK) and Christof Hartmann (INEF) are working in the network together with seven research fellows and an extended network of international cooperation partners in Europe and Africa.

Two sub-projects are located at INEF. The systematic mapping of networks and coordination of local actors with national and regional institutions in the field of crisis early warning and conflict transformation will provide a more detailed understanding of peace infrastructures in West Africa. The second sub-project will address the question of how relationships between African actors and international partners on the one hand, and local intermediaries on the other, influence the dynamics and outcomes of conflict intervention practices.

The network will provide practitioners from German ministries, political foundations and African regional organizations with strategic starting points for the targeted support and expansion of African non-military interventions. In addition to the publicly accessible register and the visualizations generated from it, the academic community will benefit from new empirical data, methodological developments and theoretical contributions on the practice of African non-military interventions.

Project Site