Militarization and Democratization: A Socio-Legal Analysis of the Third Scramble for Africa

The Third Scramble for Africa has emerged as a focal point of economic and geopolitical interest, within a neocolonial global context, in which the role of modernized militaries increasingly includes interference in political affairs and weakening the prospects for genuine democracy on the continent. To show how militarization and the loss of democracy have evolved into tools for accelerating a Third Scramble for Africa, this paper will analyze developments surrounding coups d’état in Mali and Sudan. It will advance the case that militarization and the decline of democracy are now inextricably linked to the Third Scramble for Africa.