Two separate reflections, the first by the former President of Nigeria and current Chairman of the Brenthurst Foundation Advisory Board, HE Olusegun Obasanjo, the second by our Director, Greg Mills.

President Obasanjo’s contribution - drawn from his recent address to the Third Tana High-level Forum - connects today’s pan-African security challenges to the AU’s pledge not to bequeath to future generations of Africans a legacy of wars and conflicts, by silencing the guns by 2020. In order to achieve sustainable peace in Africa, he outlines five non-negotiable priorities to fast-track the implementation of already existing collective security mechanisms.

Moving from the continent-wide security context to detailed case studies, Greg Mills examines South Africa’s recent peacekeeping involvement in Central African Republic and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He identifies several tactical and strategic lessons of direct relevance to the 3500-strong Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) which came into being last year to help stabilise the perennially insecure and unstable eastern Congo.