Article

A Developmental Role for Militaries in Africa: The Peace Engineering Corps Solution?

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Abstract

In many African states, the military is one of very few technically capable large institutions. Based on interviews with pan-Africanist intellectuals and security experts, this article shows how a “Peace Engineering Corps” concept could be operationalized by putting suitably trained professional military units to good use for civil-military cooperation and domestic development work. Such PECs would harness the military’s logistical, technical, and administrative capabilities in support of the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), providing environmental remediation, civil infrastructure expansion, and natural disaster response services. Western militaries could empower African partner forces in this regard by tailoring security assistance missions towards establishing and developing PEC capabilities, thereby supporting development, peacebuilding, and regional security efforts. We also note the potential for a pan-African civilian uniformed Peace and Development Corps, distinct from military PECs, in peace-building and economic development.

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... Existing literature tends to support the involvement of the military in the development of African nations because of the assumption that the military has capability advantages in comparison with civilian institutions. The key research question in this context is, following the recommendations of authors such as Shaw (1979), Gotowicki (1997), Diop (2013), and Zimmermann and Matisek (2020), whether it makes economic sense to involve the military in the development agenda of the state in Africa. Therefore, this study opted to put to test the notion that the military institution can perform better than civilian institutions in delivering development and services to the citizenry of the African state. ...
... Elsewhere, the African Peace and Security Architecture has proposed the ''Peace Engineering Corps'' approach that institutionalizes the deployment of soldiers for infrastructure buildout and other civilian development project purposes (Zimmermann & Matisek, 2020). This is based on the rationale that in many African states the military is allocated a large share of the national budget and that the military has more capacity than civilian government institutions in terms of equipment, technical capabilities, and trained personnel (Zimmermann & Matisek, 2020). ...
... Elsewhere, the African Peace and Security Architecture has proposed the ''Peace Engineering Corps'' approach that institutionalizes the deployment of soldiers for infrastructure buildout and other civilian development project purposes (Zimmermann & Matisek, 2020). This is based on the rationale that in many African states the military is allocated a large share of the national budget and that the military has more capacity than civilian government institutions in terms of equipment, technical capabilities, and trained personnel (Zimmermann & Matisek, 2020). Zimmermann and Matisek (2020) view this as ''a new peacetime strategic role for militaries'' that could ''contribute to state stability and reduce the trade-off between military and non-military spending'' (p. ...
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  • Interview
Interview, Colonel Mathias Rogg, director of GIDS, Hamburg, January 2020.