New ANCIP Edited Volume Published

On 17 December 2025, the edited volume “African Non-Military Conflict Intervention Practices” was released. The book is edited by Antonia Witt (PRIF), Christof Hartmann (INEF), and Ulf Engel (Leipzig University) and presents results from the collaborative research network ANCIP, such as a chapter on the practices of including civil society actors by PRIF researcher Jonas Schaaf.  

The volume offers a timely and comprehensive examination of how peace and conflict in Africa are managed beyond military means within the frame­work of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Based on extensive empirical research conducted across the network’s sub-projects, the chapters analyse how non-military interventions are implemented, embedded institu­tionally, and perceived in practice. The book sheds light on the often complex and contested inter­actions between actors from the African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), external partners, and national and local stake­holders. By focusing on informal and politically sensitive practices, the volume draws attention to forms of conflict manage­ment that are central in practice but frequently over­looked in policy and academic debates. 

The book is structured in two parts. The first part comprises empirically grounded chapters on key non-military intervention practices within the AU and RECs. The second part critically examines how such practices are documented, made visible, or obscured through policy papers, data, and dashboards. A foreword by Said Djinnit and El-Ghassim Wane, and a concluding chapter by Gilbert M. Khadiagala, situate the findings within their broader scholarly and political implications. 

The research network African Non-Military Conflict Intervention Practices (ANCIP) is a collaborative project of the Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe) at Leipzig University, the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), and the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. ANCIP focuses on the empirically and theoretically underexplored non-military conflict intervention practices of African actors and aims to advance academic debate as well as provide strategic policy advice on peace and security on the African continent.