Filling a Leaking Bathtub? Peacekeeping in Africa and the Challenge of Transnational Armed Rebellions

This research addresses the issue of transnational civil wars and United Nations peace operations in Africa and seeks to understand what is wrong with the current practices of international peacekeeping and why they underperform when confronted to transnational non-state actors. Based on a dynamic approach to armed conflicts and quantitative data, this paper finds that the current international peacekeeping practices are inadequate in the African context where porous borders and competing weak states dominate. It argues that border control should become a primary concern of every peace operation deployed in Africa.