Tswalu Dialogue

The Tswalu Dialogue was founded on the broad aim of providing a forum on issues of concern to Africa and its multiple constituencies, sharing ideas, offering fresh thinking and building consensus through debate and a network of interested Africanists.

In doing so, the Dialogue provides a forum within a unique setting for political leaders, diplomats, business-people, policy analysts and academics to discuss matters of critical importance to the African continent. The challenges facing the continent are as great as the opportunities, and it is thus a key objective of the Tswalu Dialogue to provide not only a forum for an exchange of ideas, but also to make input into the improvement of the continent. Such input takes the form of: Sharing ideas and information and development of new approaches. Building a network and constituency of Africanists at a time when the perception of Africa has tended, both within and without the continent, to be informed and shaped less by information and more by hyperbole. High-level exchanges on inter-governmental and non-governmental issues in the margins of the Dialogue.

The Dialogue is a uniquely African event involving a small, select group of top international participants held in informal surroundings.

Tswalu 2007

The 2007 Dialogue focussed on The African Military in the 21st Century. There are a number of reasons why this topic is important. First, security and stability is an essential prerequisite to development.

Second, there remain security threats to a large number of African countries and many African militaries face short- or medium-term threats.

Third, the African Union has undertaken to perform a range of security-related tasks on the continent, including diplomacy, peace support operations and humanitarian assistance. The African Standby Force (ASF) introduces, in this regard, another important aspect of co-operation in organizational and doctrinal matters.

Fourth, the number of democracies in Africa has increased substantially over the past quarter-century, raising new challenges about the practice of civil-military relations.

And fifth, there are related concerns about the ability of African militaries - like their counterparts elsewhere - to deal with Twenty-first century security issues: notably, terrorism, rebuilding failed states and employing appropriate technological tools.

Report of the 2007 Dialogue

History

Tswalu 2002

The Tswalu Dialogue commenced in 2002 as an initiative of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) sponsored by Jennifer and Jonathan Oppenheimer.

Tswalu 2003

The 2003 Tswalu Dialogue coincided with the second meeting of the Ford Foundation-funded project on ‘Big African States’ run jointly by the SAIIA, Princeton University and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). This programme had a number of aims, notably the need to identify the reasons for the failure or dysfunction of those larger African states which have performed badly since independence, and secondly to debate appropriate policy solutions.

Tswalu 2004

The theme for the third round of the dialogue, Tswalu 2004, was ‘Global Challenges and Africa: Bridging Divides, Dealing with Perceptions, Rebuilding Societies.’ This topic was selected as a response to the deepening crisis in Iraq and the Middle East as well as from a general concern about Western perceptions of Africa and African perceptions of the West. In order to examine recent models of external intervention in African conflict and explore new international policy responses to crises on the continent, the Dialogue sought greater participation in this round from top military officials and non-state actors such as business leaders.

Discussions focused on conflict resolution, security challenges, obstacles to democratisation and the impact of global developments on Africa. The 2004 event was again hosted by Jennifer and Jonathan Oppenheimer, and was co-organised by SAIIA and the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), with the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

The major change in approach for 2004 (and beyond) was the preparation of a formal research agenda in the form of pre-circulated research papers. These provided the foundation for the various discussions sessions.

Tswalu 2005

In 2005 the Dialogue grew again, adding the US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies and The Brenthurst Foundation, a new South African think tank devoted to the study of African economic growth. This year Africa is higher on the international agenda than at any previous time in history, for both economic and strategic reasons. Against this backdrop, the fourth Tswalu Dialogue considered the imperative for Africa of the three increasingly braided strands of global diplomacy: trade, development and security.

Report of the 2005 Dialogue

Tswalu 2006

The 2006 theme - Differentiating Africa - braided together local and external concerns in identifying strategies for stability, recovery and development, and learning from past successes and failures. Many external strategies for African engagement take sweeping views of Africa, rather than the more differentiated perspectives that are demanded by the varying situations of African states. This event considered the means required to reinforce the success of those African states which have successfully pursued reforms and identifies the lessons from their recovery, examines the past record of Western policy engagement with Africa, considers some of the lessons from Asia and elsewhere within this context, and establishes what can be done about those African countries considered to be weak, failing or failed states. Finally, it considered strategies for successful reform.

The 2006 event departed from the traditional Tswalu format by having a formal plenary session on the Friday, followed by a breakaway session for senior governmental representatives on the Saturday. A number of formal papers were prepared for the sessions.