Assistant Professor of Public Policy & International Development
Chair of the Programme Council & Academic Advisor
Leiden University, Netherlands
Winner of the 2021 Leiden University Best Teacher of the Year Award
Ranked Top 4 Best Teachers in the Netherlands in 2022
Publications
Peer-reviewed Articles
Adedokun, Ayokunu (2019) "Transition from Civil War to Peace: The Role of the United Nations and International Community in Mozambique," Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 26 : No. 1 , Article 4. DOI: 10.46743/1082-7307/2019.1421. Available at:
Abstract
With the heavy involvement of the United Nations (UN) and the international community, the Rome General Peace Agreement of 1992 ended more than 16 years of civil war in Mozambique. The peace agreement and post-conflict initiatives by the international community was successful in transforming the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) from a rebel group into a viable political party. Key components of the United Nations and the broader international community success in negotiating peace and creating conditions for political stability and democracy in Mozambique were (a) the provision of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) before democratisation, (b) decentralization of humanitarian and relief efforts to provincial and district levels, (c) provision of financial support directly for the development of political parties, and (d) budget support to sectors relevant to peacebuilding. Though imperfect, Mozambique remains an important case study of how the UN and international community can help in post-conflict environments. Thus, the paper argues that success in peacebuilding operations depends on credible and impartial international support through the UN, as opposed to peacebuilding operations through the United States of America or Russia.
Peer-reviewed Articles
Adedokun, Ayokunu (2017) “Emerging Challenges to Long-term Peace and Security in Mozambique.”Social Encounters: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, 37-53. Available at:
Abstract
Mozambique’s transition from civil war to peace is often considered among the most successful implementations of a peace agreement in the post-Cold War era. Following the signing of the 1992 Rome General Peace Accords (GPA), the country has not experienced any large-scale recurrence of war. Instead, Mozambique has made impressive progress in economic growth, poverty reduction, improved security, regional cooperation and post-war democratisation. Mozambique has also made significant strides in the provision of primary healthcare, and steady progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Notwithstanding these stellar achievements, Mozambique still faces a large number of political, social and economic problems: poverty, unemployment, natural resource boom, increasing political exclusion and growing political tensions between Renamo and the Frelimo government, dependence on foreign aid, and low access to social and economic services and facilities. This paper unpacks these challenges and the implications for Mozambique’s long-term peace and security.
Edited Volume
Broich, Tobias., Szirmai, Adam., Adedokun, Ayokunu. (2019), “Chinese and Western Development Approaches in Africa: Implications for the SDGs.” In Ramutsindela, M., and Mickler, D. (eds.), Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. Available at:
Abstract
This chapter discusses the entry of China into the game of foreign finance in Africa in an international comparative perspective. We present an analysis of long-run changes in the allocation of Western aid both globally and in Africa, along with estimates of the global sectoral allocation of Chinese aid. A similar analysis is also applied to China’s foreign direct investment and international trade. While previous literature has predominantly attributed China’s economic embrace of Africa to domestic factors, we argue that the sectoral distribution of Beijing’s foreign aid—and partly foreign direct investment—is also affected by changes in the patterns of Western aid and investment flowing to the African continent. We provide quantitative evidence for long-run trends, switches and breaks in Western development assistance. China’s foreign aid typically flows into Africa’s physical infrastructure and productive sectors of agriculture and manufacturing, filling the vacuum which emerged when Western financial flows shifted to other activities, most notably capacity building and good governance reforms. While the increasing trade relationships between China and Africa are often described as South–South trade, the pattern highly resembles the typical North–South trade patterns. Overall, this chapter shows that financial resources from both the traditional Western donors and emerging donors from the Global South such as China can help African recipient countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. China’s development assistance in Africa may serve as a complement to the kinds of foreign aid provided by the traditional donor countries.
Working Papers
Adedokun, Ayokunu. (2017), “Post-conflict Peacebuilding: A Critical Survey of the Literature and Avenues for Future Research.” UNU-MERIT, Working Paper No. 16/2017. Available at:
Abstract
How and why do some civil wars end in a peace that endures while other civil wars re-ignite? The existing literature comes to contradictory and puzzling conclusions. For example, while some scholars and development practitioners argue that differences in post-conflict peace-building outcomes were to be explained by the intervention of the international community, other scholars focus on how a civil war ends -whether it ended in a government victory, a rebel victory or a negotiated settlement. By contrast, more recent studies find that states' attributes such as the level of economic development; pre-war level of democracy; the degree of ethnic fractionalisation; and state dependence on oil exports influence the outcomes of post-conflict peacebuilding. Although these explanations focus on different aspects and use different explanatory variables to explain the variation in post-conflict peacebuilding, they are complementary and overlapping in many important ways. This paper presents an in-depth review of a wide body of theoretical and empirical research on post-conflict peacebuilding. The review covers three stands of literature on peace and conflict research which include: (1) those that focus on the root causes of the initial conflict, (2) those that focus on how the original war was fought, and finally, (3) those that focus on post-conflict peacebuilding. The insights from this literature reveals that while existing studies on the transition from civil war to peace have yielded considerable insights, there are a number of weaknesses and gaps. Some policy conclusions are drawn and directions for future research are suggested.
Monograph
Adedokun, A. (2016), ‘Pathways to Sustainable Peacebuilding in Divided Societies: Lessons & Experiences from Mozambique.’ Publisher: Boekenplan, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Abstract
Today most armed conflicts occur within states and not between them. These conflicts are more difficult to solve than international conflicts and often reoccur. What factors can help prevent warring parties from reverting to violence and instead create a sustainable peace? Does sustainable peace require support from the “outside”? Or is it most likely to succeed when driven from the “inside”? What lessons can other countries emerging from civil wars learn from successful cases of post-war peacebuilding? These are the broad questions that this research project investigates within the context of Mozambique – a country often portrayed as a “post-conflict success story” by the international community. Drawing from process tracing, original archive work, interviews and secondary sources, this monograph offers several theoretical and empirical insights that advance the current state of peacebuilding literature on Mozambique. Whereas previous research emphasised that Mozambique’s peacebuilding trajectory has been a success based on the end of the Cold War, drought, military stalemate, luck, and heavy external peacebuilding operations, this research finds that Mozambique’s relative peace and stability since 1992 is largely due to three complementary factors: (i) local participation in and ownership of the peace process; (ii) credible and impartial international support through the United Nations; and, (iii) an inclusive political settlement.