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POLEMOLOGY OF CENTRAL AFRICA (1990-2020)

Degree in Economics from Universidade Técnica de Lisboa / Instituto Superior de Economia e
Gestão. Master's degree in International Economics from ISEG. PhD in International Relations:
Geopolitics and Geoeconomics from Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. He works at Banco de
Portugal (Portugal) where is Head of Innovation and Support Division of Markets Department. He
was a Consultant for the Portuguese Post Office (CTT), Chairman of the Executive Committee and
Director of Invesfer S.A., a company of the REFER Group, and Director / CEO of CP Carga. He
teaches at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (in the Departments of Economics and Business
Sciences and International Relations) and on the MBA in Corporate Finance at Universidade do
Algarve. He is also a member of the Foreign Relations Observatory of UAL, where he has been
involved in various research projects, as well as assiduous participation in the various editions of
Janus - International Relations Yearbook.

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Resumo

In this article, we propose a holistic approach to conflict, delimiting the geographic space to
a sub-region1
, Central Africa, while keeping active the communicating vessels that derive from
ethnic mobility and the fluctuation of territorial borders.
The ethnic issue, geopolitics, and the resources curse seem to us to be more appropriate
explanatory factors of conflict than the religious issue, linked to Islam, or the idea of “failed
states”.
The processes of externalization and factionalism, the diffuse and dispersed dynamics of
alliances, their fluidity according to various alignments, extraversion and policefalia are only
visible characteristics of State`s disorder and chaos that has not disappeared, but simply
feeds, through a hybrid phenomenon (the post-colonial State), from fragmented social
structures for an economy of predatory accumulation.

Neste artigo propomos uma abordagem holística da conflitualidade, delimitando o espaço geográfico a uma sub-região1 , a África Central, embora mantendo ativos os vasos comunicantes que derivam da mobilidade étnica e da flutuação das fronteiras territoriais. A questão étnica, a geopolítica e a “maldição” dos recursos parecem-nos fatores explicativos da conflitualidade bem mais apropriados do que a questão religiosa, ligada ao Islão, ou a ideia dos “Estados falhados”. Os processos de externalização e de faccionalismo, a dinâmica difusa e de dispersão das alianças, a fluidez das mesmas obedecendo a vários alinhamentos, a extraversão e a policefalia não são mais do que características bem visíveis da desordem e do caos do Estado que não desapareceu, mas que simplesmente se alimenta, através de um fenómeno híbrido (o Estado pós-colonial), das estruturas sociais fragmentadas para uma economia de acumulação predadora.

Palavras-chave

Central AfricaConflictEthnicityreligiónResources

Central AfricaEthnicityreligiónResources

Como citar este artigo

Morais, Henrique (2023). Polemology of Central Africa (1990-2020), Janus.net, e-journal of
international relations, Vol14 N1, May-October 2023. Consulted [online] in date of last visit,
https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.14.1.11

Article received on 23 January, 2023 and accepted for publication on 3 March, 2023