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ABSTRACT
The ongoing security crisis in Mozambique reveals the limitations of the mainstream statist approach to security promotion. Whenever there is social conflict or unrest, state authorities instinctively and routinely rely on military means to deal with it. However, this approach disregards the root causes of the problem, which are often the internal social, political and economic triggers of insecurity. Presently there are international security actors assisting the Mozambican government in dealing with the armed conflict in their country. As a contribution to the emerging body of work on Mozambique’s security challenges beginning in 1990, this paper adopts a critical security perspective in the analysis of the problem. The view is taken that there ought to be a balanced or broader approach to security. Although a military response is necessary for combating hostile forces, this effort should go in tandem with addressing the fundamental causes of the crisis. The paper argues that in Mozambique poor governance in the form of corruption, political patronage, marginalisation of minority groups, centralisation of power and other exclusionary practices are the major sources of the country’s insecurity. Some proposals are suggested to address these challenges.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Chingono, ‘Religion, Politics and War’.
2 Davies and O’Meara, ‘Total Strategy’; Chingono, ‘Religion, Politics and War’.
3 Davies and O’Meara, ‘Total Strategy’.
4 Fukuyama, ‘The End of History?’.
5 Clapham, Africa and the International System.
6 For this view, see: Schmidt, ‘Primacy of National Security’; Brodie, ‘Strategy in the Missile Age’; Bull, Control of the Arms Race; Bull, ‘Strategic Studies and Its Critics’; Schelling, Arms and Influence.
7 Morgenthau, Politics among Nations, 542.
8 Williams, ‘Thinking about Security’, 1036.
9 Lawson, ‘After the Fall’.
10 Poku et al. ‘Human Security and Development in Africa’, 165.
11 See Galtung, True Worlds; Booth and Smith, International Relations Theory Today.
12 For perspectives on the broadening of security, see variously: Buzan, People, States and Fear; Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework; Booth, ‘Security and Emancipation’; Booth and Vale, ‘Critical Security Studies’.
13 Buzan, People, States and Fear, 364.
14 Booth, ‘Security and Emancipation’, 318.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., 320.
17 Ibid., 319.
18 Ibid., 319.
19 Ibid., 322.
20 Smith, State of War and Peace, 15.
21 Solomon, ‘The African State’; Aly, ‘Policy Response to Home-grown Terrorism’.
22 Herbst and Mills, Africa’s Third Liberation, 94.
23 Hosken, ‘Mozambique’s State Red Tape’.
24 Herbst and Mills, Africa’s Third Liberation.
25 Hofmann, ‘Mozambique’s Economic Transformation’.
26 Ibid., 116.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 95.
30 Ibid.
31 Gumede, ‘Mozambique Offers a Warning’.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 World Bank , Strong but Not Broadly Shared Growth.
35 Gumede, ‘Mozambique Offers a Warning’.
36 Ibid.
37 See Morrier-Genoud, ‘Jihadi Insurgency in Mozambique’, 407.
38 Filipe Nyusi, the President of Mozambique, belongs to this group. See Eric Morrier-Genoud, ‘Jihadist Insurgency in Mozambique', 405.
39 For an account of these ethnic divisions, see ibid.
40 Vines et al., ‘Mozambique to 2018’.
41 See Morrier-Genoud, ‘Jihadi Insurgency in Mozambique’.
42 For this perspective, see the Report of the Secretary –General to the UN Security Council, 9 February, 2020; UN Security Council, 2020:5/17.
43 See Fahey, ‘New Insights’; Congo Research Group, Inside the ADF Rebellion.
44 The information was obtained from UNICEF, Mozambique in a report on the effects of the cyclones.
45 See Brown et al., ‘Climate Change’; Theisen et al., ‘Climate Wars?’.
46 Gardner, ‘Why IS is So Hard to Defeat’.
47 Ibid. See also Mavhinga, ‘SADC, AU Need to Urgently Help Mozambique’.
48 The US support is in line with its strategy against global terrorism in which it offers financial, technical and other assistance to foreign states in the fight against terrorism. For some commentators this reflects a policy shift on the part of the US and other major Western states from democracy promotion to security promotion in Africa. There is increasingly less interest in governance issues; instead, the focus is on how the state can be strengthened against centrifugal forces.
49 Gardner, ‘Why IS is So Hard to Defeat’.
50 SADC, Communiqué.
51 See Booth, ‘Security and Emancipation’, 320. See also Boulding, Stable Peace.
52 See Galtung, True Worlds; Booth and Smith, International Relations Theory Today.
53 T. Taylor, ‘South Africa Must Not Be an Accomplice’, 19.
54 Porter, ‘Long Wars and Long Telegrams’.
55 Ibid.
56 Kuperman, ‘An Illuminating Dialogue’, 3.
57 Siegle, ‘Constitutional Design’, 3.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid., 4.
60 Cheeseman, ‘Accommodation Works Better’, 2. See also Kuperman, ‘An Illuminating Dialogue’.
61 Cheeseman, ‘Accommodation Works Better’.
62 Van Nieuwkerk, ‘Exploring SADC’s Evolving Peace and Security Policy Framework’.
63 Ibid., 61
64 Africa and Molomo, ‘Security in Southern Africa’, 21.
65 Domson-Lindsay, ‘Call to Lead’.
66 Van Nieuwkerk, ‘Exploring SADC’S Evolving Peace and Security Policy Framework’, 56.
67 Matlosa, Consolidating Democratic Governance; Matlosa and Lotshwao, Political Integration and Democratisation.
68 Hosken, ‘Mozambique State’s Red Tape’, 10.
69 For studies on such investment, see Hall, ‘Land Grabbing in Southern Africa’; Southall and Comninos, ‘Scrambling for Africa?’; Söderbaum and Taylor, Regionalism and Uneven Development; Crush and Frayne, ‘Supermarket Expansion’; I. Taylor, ‘A House Built Upon Sand’; Abrahams, ‘Transforming the Region?’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Albert K. Domson-Lindsay
Albert K. Domson-Lindsay (PhD), is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Eswatini, and was previously Head of Department. His research interests include critical security studies, foreign policy analysis, identity politics and regionalism and international political economy. He has published academic articles both locally and internationally.