“Roadblock politics: the origins of violence in Central Africa” | Book presentation by Peer Schouten
Dr. Peer Schouten is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Associate Researcher at IPIS and Editor-in-Chief of Theory Talks. His work combines deep fieldwork in Central Africa with theory development and engagement with policy debates.
There are so many roadblocks in Central Africa that it is hard to find a road that does not have one. Based on research in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), Peer Schouten maps more than a thousand of these roadblocks to show how communities, rebels and state security forces forge resistance and power out of control over these narrow points of passage. Schouten reveals the connections between these roadblocks in Central Africa and global supply chains, tracking the flow of multinational corporations and UN agencies alike through them, to show how they encapsulate a form of power, which thrives under conditions of supply chain capitalism. In doing so, he develops a new lens through which to understand what drives state formation and conflict in the region, offering a radical alternative to explanations that foreground control over minerals, territory or population as key drivers of Central Africa's violent history.
Discussants were Filip Reyniers (IPIS Director) and Paulin Balungwe Shamavu (IOB).
This book presentation was jointly organised with IPIS (https://ipisresearch.be/)