PulseExploreJournal ClubDebatesTrendingResearchersJournals
Instagram
HomeExploreJournal ClubTrending
Synapse
⌘+K
Synapse
July 3, 20260 citationsOpen Access

The security-development nexus: expressions of sovereignty and securitization in southern Africa

View Full Paper
HCHuman Sciences Research Council

Key Points

  • This research examines the historical and contemporary links between security and development, particularly in southern Africa.
  • Focused on varied contexts in southern Africa, including South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Democratic Congo.
  • Analyzed state policies during colonial and post-colonial periods, with emphasis on peace-keeping, community policing, and social movements.
  • Evaluated the impact of democratization on the security-development nexus across different regions.
  • The security/development link has deep historical roots, influencing both colonial and post-colonial state policies in southern Africa.
  • New configurations of this nexus are emerging under current democratic transitions, shaping policies and interventions.
  • Diverse factors such as human rights, gender dynamics, and social movements affect the trajectory of development and security efforts.

Abstract

The link between security and development has been rediscovered after 9/11 by a broad range of scholars. Focussing on southern Africa, The Security-Development Nexus shows that the much-debated linkage is by no means a recent invention. Rather, the security/development linkage has been an important element of the state policies of colonial as well as post-colonial regimes during the Cold War, and it seems to be prospering in new configurations under the present wave of democratic transitions. Contributors focus on a variety of contexts from South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia, to Zimbabwe and Democratic Congo. They explore the nexus and our understanding of security and development through the prism of peace-keeping interventions, community policing, human rights, gender, land contests, squatters, nation and state-building, social movements, disarmament and reintegration programmes and the different trajectories democratization has taken in different parts of the region.

Ask AI
Helpful
Bookmark
Share
View Full Paper

Cite This Study

Human Sciences Research Council (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a4753885c29257aa257996ehttps://doi.org/10.14749/32860472
Ask AI
Helpful
Bookmark
Share
View Full Paper