This article, which forms the introduction to a collection of studies, focuses on processes of
state construction and deconstruction in contemporary Africa. Its objective is to better …

This article adopts a socio-political lens in order to better understand the Somalia famine. As
a result it draws out important continuities with the famine of the early 1990s as well as …

Much of the current literature on state failure and collapse suffers from serious conceptual
flaws. It ignores the variegated types of empirical statehood that exist on the ground, it …

Borders are of central concern to criminologists because of the concentration of political and
material resources mobilised in their “defence”, for the physical exclusion of people and for …

Humanised accounts of restrictions on mobility are rarely the focus of debates on irregular
migration. Very little is heard from refugees themselves about why they migrate, their …

Can 'traditional'leaders and institutions help to build more legitimate, accountable and
effective governments in polities or 'states' under (re) construction? This book investigates …

The “war on terror” and remilitarization of political anxiety in the aftermath of September 11th
in the West, is both facilitated and challenged by representations of geopolitical danger and …

This paper discusses the logic of political identification by individuals and groups in the
context of re-emerging state structures in northern Somalia. Current identities are analysed …

Since 1991 the international system has struggled and failed to recreate a state on the
territory of the former Somalia. Proto‐state systems have been formed by Somalis …

In this article, we address cross-border trade from the perspectives of state institutions and
their agents, on the one hand, and private merchants and pastoralists, on the other. It will be …