Building a civil peace with NEPAD : a Niger Delta case study

Abstract

This dissertation is premised on the correlation between civil peace and human development. It explores the possibility of building peace with the new partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD) in the light of Kant’s theory of peace. A vision of peace as a process which is people-centred and contextual implies a paradigm shift whereby a domestic (monadic) peace stemming from the rule of law (republican constitution) takes precedence over interstate (dyadic) peace. Given the plan’s overt support for democracy and the market economy as the twin pillars of the liberal peace, the study hypothesises that the NEPAD-led liberalisation translates a proactive civil peacebuilding in conflict-prone countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.