The Security Arena in Africa Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan

The labels 'state fragility' and 'civil war' suggest that security within several African countries has broken down. As Tim Glawion observes, however, while people do experience insecurity in some parts of conflict-affected countries, in other areas they live in relative security. Conducting in-depth field-research between 2014 and 2018, The Security Arena in Africa is based on first-hand insights into South Sudan and the Central African Republic during their ongoing civil wars, and Somalia's breakaway state of Somaliland. Gaining valuable accounts from the people whose security is at stake, this bottom-up perspective on discussions of peace and security tells vivid stories from the field to explore complex security dynamics, making theoretical insights translatable to real-world experiences and revealing how security is created and undermined in these fragile states.

Introduction; 1. Ordering the security arena; 2. National and local histories of security; 3. Creating centres and peripheries in the national arena; 4. Inner and outer circles of the arena; 5. Stable ordering and predictable security; 6. Fluid ordering and flexible security; 7. Mixing ordering forms; 8. Embedding into and detaching from the arena; Conclusion.

Tim Glawion is a political analyst and field researcher focusing on issues of local security within fragile states. He has investigated conflict and peace in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Haiti, South Sudan, and Somaliland. Providing advice to government and civil society organizations, his research is regularly published in journals including Development and Change and the Journal of Modern African Studies.