The Social Science Research Council’s African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) program sponsored a panel of current and former fellows, on the topic, “Changing Geopolitics, Violence, and Conflict Resolution in Africa: Emerging Challenges and Prospects for Peace,” featuring presentations based on the fellows’ program-supported projects. The panel was held during the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), Prague, Czech Republic, from June 25 to 28, 2025.

The panel addressed how changing global and regional geopolitics, involving the complex interplay of domestic and external actors, is impacting and shaping the trajectories of violent conflict in Africa, including its ramifications for conflict resolution and peacebuilding on the continent. The paper presenters each used specific thematic case studies to identify and analyze how the activities of established Western Powers and Russia, and emerging ones like China, India, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, among others, are redefining the geographies and trajectories of violent conflict in Africa, including the emergence of new non-state and trans-state and trans-regional conflict actors. The papers address how the geopolitical trends pose formidable challenges to conflict resolution and peacebuilding norms and mechanisms in Africa. They also unpack how changing geopolitics and conflict dynamics are undermining democratic and welfare gains of the people, regional peace and security architectures in Africa.

In the first presentation, “Division and Uncertainty in West Africa: The Alliance of Sahel States and the Implications for Regional Security and Peacebuilding,” Dr. Ibrahim Bangura (Associate Professor, Fourth Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone / APN IRG 2016) explored the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, in September 2023, followed by the exit of the three states from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the termination of military cooperation with France and the US, and the forging of a closer military partnership with Russia. Dr. Bangura theorized that the AES, established as a mutual defense pact against perceived external aggression and internal threats, represented a major geopolitical shift in West Africa. This realignment, he argued, posed fundamental challenges to the legitimacy of ECOWAS and regional stability in West Africa.

Dr. Sebastian Paalo (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana / APN IRF 2024), in the second presentation, “Changing geopolitics, multipolarity, and local ownership of peacebuilding in Africa,” examined how global power shifts impact peacebuilding on the continent. Dr. Paalo asserted that a “local turn” in peacebuilding involves local leadership and resources, which have gained prominence since the 1990s. He noted that Africa’s geopolitical landscape, shaped by colonialism and post-Cold War era dynamics, continues to drive conflicts defined by proxy wars and instability driven by a lack of resources. Dr. Paalo also critiqued the limitations of the “liberal peace” paradigm; instead, he advocated for a hybrid peace that combines customary practices and traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, including key roles for women and youth.

The third presentation, “The Securitisation of Migration: Consequences of EU Externalization Policies on Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Africa,” saw Silindile Nanzile Mlilo (Project Manager and Doctoral Researcher, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa / Next Gen Completion 2024) analyzing how the European Union’s (EU) externalization policies continues to impact conflict resolution and peacebuilding across Africa. Mlilo argued that EU policies, which prioritize preventing migration while neglecting its root causes (conflict, poverty, poor governance, etc.), often worsen the local tensions between migrants and the host communities. She critiqued dominant Eurocentric narratives of migration that tend to securitize the concept of mobility. She instead proposed prioritizing African perspectives, highlighting the unintended consequences of these policies, including human rights violations, corruption, and the destabilization of regional mobility frameworks such as ECOWAS.

Continuing the theme of Africa’s relations with emerging powers, Kgomotso Komane (Assistant Lecturer, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa / Next Gen Research 2024) delivered the fourth presentation, on “Africa-China Relations: Commitments and Complexities to Peace and Development in Southern Africa.” Her presentation explored the dynamics of China’s engagement with Southern Africa, through a decolonial lens, and against the background of the impact of Western colonial legacies on regional development and stability in Southern Africa. Komane discussed how China’s economic growth and cooperation, while supposedly contributing towards peace and poverty relief, were heavily contributing to conflict in the region, especially in countries like Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zambia. She further emphasized that Africa’s challenges with positive development—economic, social, infrastructure, etc—are rooted in historical “overlapping epochs” of global imperialism and colonial power structures, which continue to lead to political instability, human rights violations, and a lack of development on the continent. She challenged traditional, Western-based narratives of international relations in Africa by drawing on a case study of the ongoing insurgency in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and Lesotho’s constant political turmoil.

The fifth and last presentation at the panel was by Tamia Botes (PhD Candidate, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa / Next Gen Research 2024) on “Geographies of Resistance: Eldorado Park and the Quest for Peace and Justice in African Urban Conflicts.” Botes explored Eldorado Park, a “Colored” township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, as a prominent example of how local violence is not necessarily separated from larger geopolitical forces caught up in African urban conflicts. She explained how the apartheid state’s spatial and racial engineering of Eldorado Park, a site of systemic neglect and exclusion, was linked to global and ideological currents, along with Cold War geopolitics that either implicitly condoned or actively supported racial segregation in Southern Africa. Botes further asserted that post-apartheid South Africa’s transition to democracy, dominated by neoliberal economic policies, worsened the existing socio-economic divide and exacerbated inequality not just locally but also by integrating the continent into global capitalist structures, marginalizing communities like Eldorado Park, and feeding the cycle of structural violence. As a contrast to these neoliberal ideas of what peacebuilding on the continent should look like, Botes introduced the huis-hospitaal (house hospital) as a framework for genuine care, examining how local acts of resistance challenge systemic violence by providing alternative avenues for peacebuilding. She highlighted how these informal birthing centers, run by generations of Black women midwives, embodied a form of feminist peacebuilding rooted in collective care, knowledge, and a refusal to abandon one another amidst racial-sexual violence and state neglect.

After the conclusion of the panel presentations, a Question-and-Answer session followed between the panelists and the audience. Audience members raised questions about the concepts of ownership and local peacebuilding, the dependent nature of certain geopolitical relations, and peacebuilding and reintegration efforts within ECOWAS.

One participant asked Dr. Paalo his thoughts on the possibly problematic, continuous focus on “ownership” as a concept when discussing local peacebuilding in Africa, comparing it to outdated frameworks such as the 2005 Paris Agenda. In response, Dr. Paalo acknowledged the need to reconceptualize ownership in a multipolar world and shifting toward questions of “access” and “entry points.”

Another participant also asked Komane if Chinese-funded infrastructure projects, focused on economic involvement and progress, could be seen as a form of peacebuilding due to their contribution to development. While Silindile acknowledged this point, she challenged this notion by pointing out the dependent nature of this type of engagement creates between Africa and China, particularly when local firms become reliant on Chinese financing; noting essentially, such a power dynamic complicated any notion of peacebuilding.

Finally, Dr. Bangura was asked his thoughts on the potential for the reintegration of countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger into ECOWAS. Dr. Bangura stressed that any reintegration would depend on democratic transitions and that the present instability in the region is ultimately rooted in longstanding struggles over power and resources. He also linked this to the presence of violent extremist groups in the region. Still, he expressed confidence that a renewed momentum for democracy would soon emerge and believed that Mali and Niger would lead such a democratic transition. Prof. Bangura also asserted that when these countries successfully democratize, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) would be unsustainable.

The panel presentations and the discussions that followed them inspired thought-provoking ideas on the changing geopolitics in Africa and the challenges to, as well as the potential for, peace. It demonstrated how the APN and Next Gen-sponsored panel of African scholars engaged with essential research questions and facilitated a meaningful conversation on emerging challenges to African peacebuilding.