The Challenges of Leadership in Post-Conflict Transitions: Lessons from Africa

Studies of leadership seek broad understanding of the relations between personality and context-driven
factors in decision-making. Personalities and institutions interact in the exercise of authority and mobilisation of resources to meet societal needs. Typically, institutions constrain and discipline individuals as they exert authority and establish priorities. Civil conflicts, however, often create an imbalance between individuals and institutions, decimating rules and structures while heightening the roles of individuals in the leadership equation. A core element of post-conflict reconstruction is to redress this imbalance by resurrecting (or creating anew) institutional rules that lend order to individual action. It has been widely recognised that charismatic authority is inherently unstable and ought to be replaced, over time, by the norms and routines of bureaucratic authority and regularity. As well as the extent of socio-economic
problems caused by conflicts, most post-conflict leaders seldom have clear mandates or broad-based consensus to embark on economic reconstruction. Besides, postconflict leaders socialised in wartime institutions such as insurgent movements, military-led governments and predatory, black market economies are usually least prepared to face the enormous tasks of transition from violence to peace. There is, nonetheless, widespread recognition that most post-conflict environments provide extraordinary scope to set up new norms, rules, leaders, and institutions. From this perspective, the transitions may afford fortuitous moments for bold experiments in remaking the relationships between individual leaders
and institutions.

There is significant knowledge about the restoration of institutional capacity in post-conflict states, but not on leadership as a distinct factor in this process.The singular interest in strengthening technical and administrative capacity as part of post-conflict institutional reforms barely specifies the place of leadership in these reforms. This essay suggests that focusing on post-conflict leadership as a puzzle in capacity building is a promising avenue to enrich the debates on post-conflict reconstruction. Our analysis of leadership challenges in post-conflict reconstruction draws comparative lessons from past successful and failed post-conflict transitions in Africa. We also briefly analyse how these countries dealt with questions of post-conflict planning and gender relations.

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