Global Studies with a Special Emphasis on Peace and Security in Africa

Globalisation processes are strongly linked to issues of peace and security as well as stability and development – not only in Africa. Globalisation processes, including colonisation, de-colonisation, the end of the Cold War, effects of 9/11, the 2008 economic and financial crisis, the so-called Arab Spring, the climate crisis and other current international developments have created particular challenges, risks, threats and vulnerabilities for the African continent. Globalisation is affecting Africa in specific ways and globalisation processes (past and present) have implications for security in Africa. The increase in intra-state, civil wars and cross-border conflicts following the end of the Cold War are just one example. The programme trains junior researchers and professionals in globalisation research. It qualifies them for employment, among others, in international organisations, in the field of conflict management, prevention and resolution and early warning (as well as other areas of the emerging African peace and security architecture). Our students qualify also as future lecturers, scholars and researchers for the rapidly expanding higher education sector in Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries; enabling these future elites to “think globally”. Area Studies – as the study of particular cultural, national or geographic regions – refers to interdisciplinary research fields, which draw on a variety of methods and academic perspectives, ranging from established disciplines such as History, Political Science, Sociology, Political Economy and Cultural Sciences to newly emerging sub-disciplines as, for instance, New Political Geography and Global History. By analysing the implications globalisation processes have on different world regions, Global Studies are strongly linked to Area Studies. Global and Area Studies – as a combination of social and cultural as well as historical approaches to the study of modern and contemporary globalisation processes and the comparison of world regions – offer the scientific basis of this PhD programme to develop an understanding of the dynamics of peace and security in Africa. Since Africa is faced with global challenges in particular ways, the study programme intends to pay special attention to regional perspectives on globalisation processes and – in light of the continent’s specific contemporary challenges – to the multifaceted aspects of peace and security in Africa. The general objectives of the PhD programme are to produce scholars/professionals in the area of Global and Area Studies critically challenging existing knowledge on globalisation, new regionalisms and issues of peace and security in Africa as well as the global integration of the continent with the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes. The specific objectives of the PhD programme are to: Produce researchers and educators in the above-mentioned interrelated areas of regional and global studies as well as peace and security studies Promote critical interdisciplinary research on the above-mentioned issues Create a mechanism through which research findings are communicated to the stakeholders concerned