RESEARCH QUESTIONS: Counter-Terrorism and Human Security in Africa

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Counter-Terrorism and Human Security in Africa

February 28th-29th at The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Research questions were jointly collaborated at the conclusion of the conference.

1) African Opinion Research
• Threat
• Human Security
• Counter-Terrorism
• U.S. role
• Rule of Law

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2) How do you sequence building rule of law? African views?

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3) What is spectrum of government, NGO, private sector? (U.S./international/African involvement/impact)

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4) What existing community mechanisms can be utilized to instill rule of law? What other institutions?

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5) What are the drivers of extremism? Local vs. international? How can these be quantified?

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6) What is the real threat of religious extremism?

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7) Case studies of state, youth, community, and women contributions (+/-) to security and insecurity

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8) Who are the Western/external stakeholders in Africa? How does China create a new space for African leaders?

• 8a. How does Africa play donors?
• 8b. It’s a different game. U.S. cannot compete against China. Is China the route to African globalization?

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9) What are the relations between homeland security and terrorism, what do we know/model/case studies?

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10) Geography of terrorism

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11) How does counter-terrorism in Africa rank in the U.S. government’s priorities in terms of other security threats to Africa? (Marry to #1—where are areas of conflict/agreement?)

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12) Coherence/incoherence of assessments (interpretation) of threats to U.S. interests? Compare w/ other countries?

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13) Comparative analysis of multi-lateral vs. bilateral methods and operations

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14) What is evidence of actual impact and total impact (vs. intended impact) of U.S. government actions/policies and communications? What is the impact of the gap between words and actions in the GWOT?

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15) U.S. strategic communications—what works/what doesn’t re: human security? What values should be projected?

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16) Impact of resource competition, international and trend-based (demographics, climate change)

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17) Impact of China (tied to #8?)

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18) Research products: gaming/scenario building

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19) What are the security implications/scope of the growing illicit economy?

• Where is the evidence that allows us to say something objective about how the U.S. government prioritizes U.S. interests?
• Can we cost out in terms of projections whether we’ve got our priorities straight? For U.S., counter-terrorism all over the world is important – we’ve made it the top priority everywhere else on earth. What are the other trends? What other priorities should be emphasized?
• Afro-Barometer (JP Peltier suggested resource)