Political Markets and Conflict Research
The concept of a ‘political marketplace’, developed by Alex de Waal, is gaining currency among diplomats, peacemakers, aid workers and scholars concerned with fragile and conflict-affected countries. It provides an alternative to the dominant state-building framework of political science; it is a lens that enables a focus on the transnationally-integrated processes of political bargaining that are increasingly prevalent in these countries; and it provides a vocabulary that is useful for understanding how monetized patrimonial politics operates in real time (e.g. terms such as ‘political budget’ and ‘price of loyalty’). As transactional politics and deal-making becomes elevated in the governance of western countries including the United States, the ‘political marketplace’ also has resonance well beyond the locations in Africa and the Middle East where it has primarily been used. This research program led by Alex de Waal, develops and applies the concepts of the political marketplace.
The program includes:
de Waal’s book, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, war and the business of power (Polity Press, 2015) was the major output of the research into this during the period 2011-15. The book can be described as a comparative political ethnography: it is a description of how the ‘real politics’ of elite bargaining works, including the important roles played by corruption and violence, taking into account the perspectives of accomplished national and local practitioners of political business in the countries of north-east Africa. The analysis implies a general model for how transactional politics works, including the conditions under which a stable trajectory towards generating public goods including state-building might be possible. To order, visit Polity Press.
- Video of de Waal’s book lecture at the Ginn Library, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, November 6, 2015.
- Video of abook launch event, “The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa” (Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somaliland/Somalia), at the US Institute of Peace, March 11, 2016
Conflict Research Programme
The rationale for theConflict Research Programme (CRP), which launched in 2017, is to apply the framework of the political marketplace to five countries: Syria, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan and DRC, plus the Horn of Africa/Red Sea region. The program is funded by DFID, and is developed with Alex de Waal as Research Director in partnership with LSE. The guiding idea is to investigate empirically how the logic of the political marketplace, and the subsidiary ideas of moral populism and civic politics, functions in each of the locations, and to see how policies to prevent and resolve violent conflict could be designed accordingly.
PeaceREP
The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PCREP) is a collaborative research programme that aims to re-think “peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics, changing demands of inclusion, and changes in patterns of global intervention in conflict and peace/mediation/transition management processes.” It is based at the University of Edinburgh.
WPF’s work focuses on the “political marketplace,” in which transactional politics increasingly trumps institutional politics and that political transactions are increasingly monetized. Hence, political life is amenable to analysis as a market. While this framing was first developed for the turbulent, strife-torn countries of the Horn of Africa, it is relevant elsewhere.
Spotlight
Hunger in Sudan’s Political Marketplace
APRIL 2022
Eddie Thomas and Alex de Waal
The Sudanese people are suffering a protracted nationwide crisis of food security, sharply exacerbated by a ‘perfect storm’ of adversities including hyperinflation and the disruption of wheat imports—80 percent of which were from Russia and Ukraine. The immediate crisis a shortage of food and a collapse in entitlement to food…
A Political Marketplace Analysis of the Humanitarian Crisis in Northeast Nigeria
A manmade humanitarian crisis is a tragedy, but for some, it is also a lucrative opportunity. As the crisis
deepens prompting massive security and humanitarian spending, along with the increasing cost of rebuilding, for certain individuals, the ensuing crisis economy becomes more lucrative than the peacetime economy. While some benefit, millions suffer. The crisis in northeast Nigeria epitomizes this dynamic.
Two cartoon series, by Alex de Waal with Kenyan artist Victor Ndula, depicts the “political marketplace” in South Sudan: “Who Got What” (2015) and “South Sudan: The Price of War, The Price of Peace” (2016).
Past programs:
Justice and Security Research Programme
JSRP (2011- 2016): In partnership with the London School of Economics (LSE), this Department for International Development (DFID) funded research program explores patronage markets and hybrid political orders: how fragile and conflict-ridden countries really function in fragile and conflict-affected states. The JSRP was concluded in December 2016.
Photo: Stacks of Money, Tristam Sparks, 2008\Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)