Central Africa’s Security Paradox: Active International Intervention amid Protracted Conflict

Despite its considerable potential and growth rates, the African continent has not yet overcome its main challenge: con icts, which have become almost chronic in some countries. Given the tangible consequences of these con icts for both African countries and the rest of the world, establishing and maintaining peace and security in Africa remains a priority for the international community. The Central African Republic (CAR), one of the world’s poorest countries, landlocked but rich in natural resources, has experienced the full impact of endless coups, weak governance and con ict. Since the mid-1990s, more than a dozen peacekeeping operations have been conducted here. The CAR has become a kind of ‘laboratory’ for all possible types of intervention, including multidimensional stabilization operations, training, observation, advisory, military missions and peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations. The peacekeeping ‘marathon’ in the CAR involved a multitude of actors, including the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the European Union (EU), as well as individual countries, such as France and, to some extent, Russia. Despite these interventions, the domestic political situation in the country remained unstable for a long time, representing the Central African security paradox. To study this issue, the dynamics of numerous peacekeeping operations since 1997 were examined, and three main stages of international intervention were identi ed based on qualitative changes in the security situation. The present study is based on a qualitative comparative analysis, which enables to identify stable combinations of factors that determine the e ectiveness or ine ectiveness of international missions in protracted con icts. The study reveals the main reasons for the limited e ectiveness of international peacekeeping in the CAR.