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Gordon
Cumming

Political sciences - United-Kingdom

Research topics

PROJECT

MOBILISING SUPPORT FOR MILITARY INTERVENTION IN AFRICA: BEYOND TWO-LEVEL GAMES

During his visit to the Collegium (February-July 2019), Professor Gordon Cumming (Cardiff University) will be working on a Leverhulme-funded collective project which focuses on the moblisation of support for militaro-humanitarian interventions in Africa. Combining Putnam’s Two-Level Games (TLG) with insights from regime complexity theory (forum shopping, norm-stretching,cross-institutional strategies), it explores the coalition-building and -rebuilding strategies used by a ‘lead nation’, which coordinates the planning, mounting, and execution of [an] operation’; a ‘joint lead', which spearheads a mission with another actor; and a ‘functional lead agent’, which assumes 'specific critical subfunctions' (MIWG, 2000). It focuses specifically on France which is a ‘crucial case’ given its self-appointed role as Africa's ‘gendarme’;its P5 status; its initiation of and participation in CSDP military operations; and its key role in recent missions.
This is the first study to use TLG to analyse coalition-building in militaro-humanitarian missions. It demonstrate how ‘uncertainty levels’ and ‘imperfect information’ (Iida, 1993) in the international system can be manipulated. It also sheds light on potentially prototypical modes of intervening. Equally, it provides a framework for explaining coalition-building in other areas such like counter-terrorism.

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

Gordon Cumming is Professor of European Foreign Affairs and International Development in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University (a Russell Group university currently ranked 5th in the UK for research). Gordon began his career in the Foreign Office and United Nations. Upon joining academia, he built on this earlier experience by producing both policy-relevant and theoretically underpinned research on French, British and European foreign, development and security policies as well as on civil society capacity-building and fragile African states. His research expertise has been recognised within Cardiff University (where he has served as Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Programme convener and Director of Research/ Postgraduate Research) and beyond. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Learned Society of Wales and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, he has served as a Professeur Invité at the Centre d’Etudes d’Afrique Noire, Bordeaux, and at Sciences Po Lyon. With support from research funding bodies such as the British Academy, he has written books including Aid to Africa (2001), French NGOs in the Global Era (2009), New Approaches to the Challenges of Africa (2011) and France, and Europe and Development Aid (2013).

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • French NGOs in the Global Era: A Distinctive Role in International Development, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndsmill, 2009, ISBN no 9781403945242, pp. 272.
  • Aid to Africa: French and British Aid from the Cold War to the New World Order, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2001, pp. 446.
  • From Rivalry to Partnership: New Approaches to the Challenges of Africa, co-edited with Tony Chafer (0.5 each), Ashgate, Aldershot, July 2011, ISBN 978-1-4094-0518-4, pp.274.
  • France, Europe and Development Aid: from the Treaties of Rome to the Present Day, co-edited (with Professor Gerard Bossuat), IGPDE, Paris, December 2013.

Articles

  • ‘A Prototypical Case in the Making: Challengung Comparative Perspectives on French Aid’, European Journal of Development Research January 2017, Volume 29, Issue 1, pp 19–36
  • ‘The European Union in Sudan: A Missed Opportunity’, The Round Table, 104 (4), 2015, pp. 473-488
  • ‘Europeanisation through the Prism of Regime Complexity’, European Politics and Society, Volume 17, 2016 - Issue 1, pp 12-27
  • ‘The United Kingdom over the Lomé years: a constructive partner in Europe?’, Revue Francaise de Civilisation Britannique 18 (1) , 2013, pp. 147-165.
  • ‘Nicolas Sarkozy’s Africa Policy: Change, Continuity or Confusion?’, French Politics, vol. 11, 1, April 2013, pp. 24–47.
  • ‘Burying the Hatchet? Britain and France in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 49 (4), 2011, pp.547-573.
  • ‘Good Intentions are not Enough: French NGO Efforts at Democracy-Building in Cameroon', Development in Practice, volume 21, no. 2, April 2011, pp. 218-33.
  • ‘From Rivalry to Partnership? Critical Reflections on Anglo-French Cooperation in Africa’ (joint authored: 0.5), Review of International Studies, ‘From Rivalry to Partnership? Critical Reflections on Anglo-French Cooperation in Africa’, published online March 2011, DOI 10.1017/S0260210511000027.
  • ‘Beyond Fashoda: Anglo-French security cooperation in Africa since Saint-Malo’ (joint authored: 0.5), International Affairs, vol. 86, no. 5, September 2010, pp. 1129-1148
  • ‘French NGOs and the state: Paving the way for a new partnership?’, French Politics [a Palgrave journal], vol. 7, 2, 2009, pp 145–166
  • NGOs in the Global Era: Professionalization “Without Borders”’, International Journal of Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations (Voluntas), vol. 19, no. 4, December 2008, pp. 372-394.
  • ‘Promoting Democracy in Cameroon: France’s Revolutionary Approach?’, International Journal of Francophone Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, 2007, pp. 105-120.
  • ‘Transposing the “Republican” Model? A Critical Appraisal of France’s Historic Mission in Africa’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 2005, pp. 233-252.
  • ‘UK African Policy in the Post Cold War Era: from Realpolitik to Moralpolitik?’, Journal of Comparative and Commonwealth Politics, vol. 42, no. 1, March 2004, pp. 106-128.
  • ‘Commonwealth and Francophone Summits: Towards a New Sense of Purpose’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, November 2003, pp. 201-213.
  • ‘Modernisation without Banalisation: Towards a New Era in French African Aid Relations’, Modern and Contemporary France, 2000, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 359-370.
  • ‘British Aid to Africa: A Changing Agenda?’, Third World Quarterly, 1996, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 487-501.
  • ‘French Development Assistance to Africa: Towards a New Agenda?’, African Affairs,1995, 94, pp. 383-398.