ABSTRACT
Most of Africa’s conflicts in the first two decades of the twenty-first century have been civil wars. International interventions in these conflicts have come in the form of pressures on armed actors to respect human rights and to address problems of corruption. Illicit commercial networks and other non-state actors have played roles in these conflicts too. But the intensification of competition between the US, China, Russia, and competition among regional powers now shapes Africa’s wars. The international factor now comes more often in the form of backing for an African proxy in wider struggles for influence. Armed actors in Africa use this competition to leverage international support. The overall effect is to give leaders of states and armed groups in Africa more agency to pursue their own interest, but at the risk of undermining respect for basic human rights and norms of governance. The turn toward proxy warfare on the continent also poses the risk of prolonging conflicts if these conflicts become absorbed into the longer-term struggles between much more powerful backers.
