Nic Cheeseman’s Post

Russia has tightened its hold over the Sahel region – and now it’s looking to Africa’s west coast "Considering that Africa is already struggling with widespread corruption and hardships enabled by old-fashioned and puppet leaders, violent conflicts, and coups, foreign powers must be prevented from further worsening the situation under the guise of counter-terrorism operations" Thought provoking piece by Olumba E. Ezenwa and John Sunday Ojo over at Democracy in Africa now: https://lnkd.in/e85BjvWJ

📺 Ghana Decides 2024 - fantastic webinar! 📺 21 May 2024, 4:00PM Ghana time, 5:00PM UK time Join us for this brilliant panel on Ghana's 2024 elections as we discuss issues, concerns and outcomes. How will the last election of the year play out - and what will it tell us about Ghanaian democracy and the prospects for the econnomy? A really fantastic set of speakers. Register: https://lnkd.in/eZ-hdZWd Organised by the International Development Department and the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representations of the University of Birmingham, and Democracy in Africa. Panel Professor Edward Brenya - Head of Department and lecturer at the Department of History and Political Studies, KNUST Professor George Bob-Milliar - Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Cultural and African Studies (CeCASt at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Michelle Ankrah-Pambour - Executive Director, LiOR Foundation Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin - Director, ABANTU for Development Dr Joseph Asunka - CEO, Afrobarometer Professor Jeffrey Haynes - Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University Moderator: Sharon Boadu, Mo Ibrahim Scholar, Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the University of Birmingham Chair: Prof Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and Director of CEDAR, University of Birmingham

😀 New article on the most effective way to fight serious and organized crime😀 Delighted to see this paper on "Getting the message right: what are the impacts of counter-serious and organised crime awareness-raising strategies?" published in Behavioural Public Policy. Working again with the brilliant Caryn Peiffer, we find that campaigns in this area often backfire, and that even messages designed to overcome some of the problems of public campaigns (like them backfiring and making citizens less confident that these issues can be solved) can risk triggering unwanted responses. Should be open access, but let me know if you can't download it. Counter-serious and organised crime (SOC) strategies often include an awareness-raising element. Such messaging aims to build support for counter-SOC efforts, and intolerance for organised criminal activity. However, a growing body of research suggests that raising awareness to ‘social bads’ like SOC may risk backfiring by encouraging pessimistic attitudes about whether they can be controlled and could even nudge people to agree with populist narratives which argue that political outsiders represent the only hope for tackling systemic problems. A nationally representative survey experiment in Albania was conducted to test, for the first time, the impact of messages about SOC. Typical of counter-SOC messaging in practice, the first message emphasised the harms SOC causes. The second was more positive, highlighting high levels of social disapproval of SOC, a theme that social norms research suggests may be effective. We find that the first message backfires by reducing confidence in law enforcement and encouraging support for populist ideas. The second message is unexpectedly found to also encourage support for a populist sentiment, while having no positive impact on attitudes about law enforcement. This suggests that even positive messaging about ‘social bads’ can risk triggering unwanted responses. https://lnkd.in/eAs6aJ7W

Have you been listening to the brilliant People, Power, Politics podcast? If not, this episode on how to stage a coup (and other lessons) is a fantastic place to start! Why do states engage in secret statecraft and covert action? How different are these secret and covert state activities in real world settings compared to their popular culture representations? And what effect do they have on democracy both globally and in individual states? Join Rory Cormac as he talks to Petra Alderman about his book How to Stage a Coup and Ten Other Lessons from the World of Secret Statecraft (Atlantic Books UK, 2023). Rory Cormac is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He specialises in secret intelligence and covert action. His most recent book, How to Stage A Coup and Ten Other Lessons from the World of Secret Statecraft, was described in the CIA's in-house journal as “a valuable and thought-provoking work, the most thorough treatment of the topic to date.” Petra Alderman is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Leadership for Inclusive and Democratic Politics at the University of Birmingham and Research Fellow at CEDAR. The People, Power, Politics podcast brings you the latest insights into the factors that are shaping and re-shaping our political world. It is brought to you by the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR) based at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Join us to better understand the factors that promote and undermine democratic government around the world and follow us on Twitter at @CEDAR_Bham! Check it out now 👇 https://lnkd.in/e68p2aBk

🏁 Great opportunity - paid position at the University of Birmingham 🏁 Applications for the Cadbury Research Fellowship in African Studies at the University of Birmingham are now open! The position will run for 18 months from January 2025 and we are seeking an early career scholar (PhD awarded since September 2018) in any discipline within the arts, humanities and social sciences, with a focus on any region of sub-Saharan Africa. This post is funded by an endowment that enables members of staff at sub-Saharan African Universities to spend a period of time at the University of Birmingham. The post is therefore limited to applicants currently based on the African continent and affiliated with an African Higher Education Institution. Please share this opportunity within your networks. The closing date for applications is 27 May 2024. Apply via the link below, which has all the details you need. https://lnkd.in/e2ZTJ63m

It was great to discuss election rigging in the "Year of Elections" with the Spectator's Will Kingston for one of its podcasts. How are authoritarians innovating? What new techniques will we see this year? And what can be done? https://lnkd.in/et4TiPhm

Rwanda 6 April 1994: A personal reflection Check out Theogene Rudasingwa's latest post for Democracy in Africa. I think this one will spark some debate ... "Tutsi RPF engineered a regime change in 1994, only to build on the ruins of the ancient Hutu regime, a more lethal and deeply entrenched totalitarian police state. I often ask myself how a clique of Africans can inflict such untold suffering on fellow Africans, leading many to ask how different such cliques are from Western imperialism that sold us as slaves, colonized us, and lent us hands in our mutual assured destruction." https://lnkd.in/ez5K3w9Q