摘要
The military spending in Africa is not only high but it is persistent,unconstrained,and even defies the COVID-19 fiscal challenges.With militaries including intelligence been projected as the“guarantors”of national security,this phenomenon has been perpetuated by the assumption that more military spending will improve security conditions.This article revisits this assumption by showing the traditional state-centric military security threats that justify such high spending are increasingly been overtaken by the growing non-military security threats that have become the major national security concerns.Based on the available data on security,safety,and military spending in Africa,it is shown in this article the presence of inverse relationship between high military spending and security.The main driver of such spending is the backroom resource-driven defense policies that are grounded on the military-centric definition of strategy,which advocates military solutions and more resources to military as panacea for securing survival of state and safety of its citizens.Such military solutions might be detrimental to state and human security.The urgent war to be fought today in Africa is not about existential threat of state and its territorial integrity but it is a war against a web of complex threats to the lives and livelihoods of African citizens.One possible way of constraining the high military spending in Africa is to formulate new defense policies that are inclusive,transparent,people-centered,and guided by inclusive people-centered national security strategies and core budgetary principles.