In a new book, peace researcher Kwesi Aning analyses Mali’s slippery slope to collapse and looks beyond the dominance of Western peacebuilding paradigms to find more contextually grounded responses to insecurity in Africa. He emphasises how important it is to include local perspectives and indigenous knowledge.

According to Kwesi Aning, security analyst at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, peacebuilding discourses and practices in regions like the Sahel often focus too much on military interventions. In his new book Responses to Insecurity in Africa: The Challenge of Peacebuilding, he argues for a more nuanced understanding of African contexts, emphasizing the need to incorporate local perspectives and traditional governance structures. Kwesi Aning is critical of the dominance of Western methods and perspectives in peacebuilding policies and advocates for greater recognition of African agency in defining and addressing security challenges.

“A hybrid and inclusive approach to peacebuilding should integrate indigenous knowledge and local capacities alongside international frameworks”, Kwesi Aning argues.

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“He questions such common terms as 'state failure' and 'failed states', and takes up issues relating to 'peacebuilding' – even asking if this is a 'wicked problem'.”

Professor emeritus Peter Wallensteen in his foreword