Post-Independence African Security: Reflections on the Role of China and France

Abstract

Africa's political landscape is nearly unchanged from the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the majority of its nations gained independence. The two exceptions to this rule are Southern Sudan, which separated from Sudan in July 2011, and Eritrea, which separated from Ethiopia in 1993. The nations on the continent have faced numerous shared difficulties since the conclusion of the Cold War. The twenty-first century got off to a rough start. According to the 2005 Peace and Conflict Report, 31 out of 161 nations—17 of which were African—were at risk of a major conflict. Africa contains more U.N. peacekeeping personnel than any other continent; as of 2024, 75% of all U.N. peacekeepers were stationed there. Since the conclusion of the Cold War, the U.N. has carried out 19 major peace operations, ten of which have taken place in Africa. Africa was the site of seven of the fourteen major hostilities that occurred worldwide around the beginning of the century. Since 1960, at least one instance of non-separatist civil strife has occurred in at least thirty-two African nations. Most of the world's conflicts occur there. This paper concentrates on China's and France's contributions to African security despite the continent's security predicament in the twenty-first century. It discusses a song about "new security threats." These consist of terrorist threats, international organised crime, and poor government. These security risks have nothing to do with a state endangering another's ability to survive. These "new security threats" originate in part from the way the international order has changed since the end of the Cold War, particularly from the consequences of globalisation. They also result from nature and are made worse by it. This paper starts by examining the dynamics of the security issues facing Africa today from the standpoint of human security. The thesis here is that a far broader analytical lens that captures the larger, interwoven complexities of Africa's security concerns is necessary when analyzing these dilemmas, rather than a limited state-centric or regime-centric approach. It then examines regional and global initiatives and tactics that have addressed these issues. The main contention of this paper is that institutional and governmental weakness are the main causes of Africa's security problems. In spite of the continent's security issues, it focuses on explaining why and how China's involvement in peacekeeping in Africa has developed as well as the anticipated future paths this will follow. Over the last ten years or so, China has become a significant contributor to UN peacekeeping efforts, with Chinese peacekeepers sent to a variety of locations, including Sudan, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is a significant advancement in African security as well as Sino-African ties. Chinese policy in this area is changing, despite the fact that China's position on peace operations is strongly linked to its views on state sovereignty, which restrict the kinds of interventions Beijing is willing to approve. This paper also looks at Franco-African relations, emphasizing how France has shaped, framed, adapted, and guided the defence and security framework of the continent in the past and how it continues to play a significant role in how Africa—and Francophone Africa in particular—addresses the security issues listed above. The core philosophical, political, and cultural tenets of that framework—that is, the idea that France and its former colonies are bound together by a unique relationship that calls for close cooperation and France's support and assistance due to historical and human ties as well as the shared use of the French language—remained constant. While new actors like China and the United States, which are no longer constrained by Cold War understandings, are undermining this argument, elites in France and African nations continue to support it. However, the defence and security structure itself has changed significantly during the past 50 years. A brief discussion of the changes in Franco-African relations is given, with an emphasis on the features of the current defence and security framework and how they have also been evolving to meet new realities. A few incidents that put President Sarkozy's determination to establish a more legitimate framework for France's relations with Africa to the test are briefly examined in order to assess the degree to which he changed the framework and its operations.