Revolutionary Leaders and State Support for Rebel Groups in Africa
1:00pm - 2:00pm /
Wednesday 8th February 2023
/ Online event
Type: Seminar /
Category: Department
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Dr Henning Tamm
Lecturer in International Relations
University of St. Andrews
State support for rebel groups is a pervasive phenomenon in Africa: 39 out of 47 mainland African states (83%) were sponsors and/or targets between 1960 and 2010. There were more than 200 unique triadic relationships between a sponsoring leader, a sponsored rebel group, and a targeted leader in this period. What explains why many African leaders use pro-rebel support as a foreign policy tool whereas others do not? That is the question this talk addresses. Existing scholarship on Africa’s international relations typically focuses on personal survival. It sees all leaders as primarily reactive. The talk develops an alternative perspective on African leaders that better explains pro-rebel support. It shifts the focus to a subset of leaders that seeks more than just survival: revolutionary leaders—those seizing power by irregular means and implementing radical domestic changes. It is these leaders who, driven by revisionist foreign policy objectives, are most commonly the first to target other leaders. The talk illustrates this perspective with several short examples.
Henning Tamm is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews. In addition to the themes explored in this talk, he focuses on the cohesion and fragmentation of armed groups. His research has appeared in African Affairs, the European Journal of International Relations, International Security, and International Studies Quarterly, among others. Prior to St Andrews, Henning completed his doctorate and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. He was also a predoctoral fellow with the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University.
This is a free event which will take place on Zoom, no registration necessary.Zoom meeting link
(Meeting ID: 950 2251 7248 Passcode: ky*h@z29)
Lecturer in International Relations
University of St. Andrews
State support for rebel groups is a pervasive phenomenon in Africa: 39 out of 47 mainland African states (83%) were sponsors and/or targets between 1960 and 2010. There were more than 200 unique triadic relationships between a sponsoring leader, a sponsored rebel group, and a targeted leader in this period. What explains why many African leaders use pro-rebel support as a foreign policy tool whereas others do not? That is the question this talk addresses. Existing scholarship on Africa’s international relations typically focuses on personal survival. It sees all leaders as primarily reactive. The talk develops an alternative perspective on African leaders that better explains pro-rebel support. It shifts the focus to a subset of leaders that seeks more than just survival: revolutionary leaders—those seizing power by irregular means and implementing radical domestic changes. It is these leaders who, driven by revisionist foreign policy objectives, are most commonly the first to target other leaders. The talk illustrates this perspective with several short examples.
Henning Tamm is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews. In addition to the themes explored in this talk, he focuses on the cohesion and fragmentation of armed groups. His research has appeared in African Affairs, the European Journal of International Relations, International Security, and International Studies Quarterly, among others. Prior to St Andrews, Henning completed his doctorate and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. He was also a predoctoral fellow with the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University.
This is a free event which will take place on Zoom, no registration necessary.Zoom meeting link
(Meeting ID: 950 2251 7248 Passcode: ky*h@z29)