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Occasional Paper No. 1 - Security: A new African Paradigm by Dan Henk

Staff

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Introduction

THEME... It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.

The University of Zimbabwe (UZ)-Centre for Defence Studies (CDS) is an active national network of academics and practitioners engaged in training, research and education relevant to the Zimbabwean security sector and the civil society. It takes root on home soil, demand for its services grow, also in directions not always catered for in the Southern African Defence and Security Management (SADSEM) network curricula, requiring some creative responses. The CDS engages professionally and efficiently with its partner base which includes the security sector, government departments and the academic community, including various national and research institutions and civil society.

CDS identity

The identity of the CDS is primarily an academic one, allowing for associates to exercise a range of roles. This approach recognises a dynamic relationship between a set of connections and client base (principally the formal security sector) determined mostly by local conditions. This identity acts to prevent the relationship from being too distant (leading to detached critique), or too close (leading to co-option). To maintain its academic identity and integrity the CDS embraces the following vision, mission, principles and values.

Vision and Mission

The vision of the UZ-CDS project is to strengthen peace and security in Zimbabwe and the region by enhancing self-governing control of security sector and civil society functions.

It seeks to achieve this by

providing training and education in

defence and security management, including civil-military relations,
the management of multilateral security, including peacekeeping,
parliamentary oversight of the security sector,
security sector governance, and
the management of public security

building scholarly and policy capacity;
enhancing regional co-operation and civil society involvement through joint programmes and
establishing a nexus between state security, human security and sustainable development

Principles

The CDS is guided by the following principles:

CDS is highly conscious of the demands of maintaining academic integrity while relying upon the formal security sector and the civil society as its major stakeholders. The relationship works best where conditions of confidence and trust exist and where the CDS main objectives are seen as constructive rather than threatening.

CDS maintains good links with SADSEM institutions which include ten Universities in the SADC region namely Angola, Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia in support of the institutional evolution of the African Union and the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation
CDS‘s primary activities are education and training. These are supported by a research and policy capacity. CDS and the regional network works in close partnership with its principal clients: the governments, defence,, security agencies and institutions of civil society in Zimbabwe, while maintaining academic integrity through partner institutions with sound academic credentials.
The CDS retains a critical independence with regard to its research and teaching and adheres to the highest academic standards and values while at the same time focusing on policy-oriented teaching, applied research and developing capacity for technical support. The CDS aims to improve its overall financial sustainability through developing co-operative arrangements with partner institutions, government and civil society members where there exists scope for these to take a greater share of the overall financial burden

Values

The CDS is guided by the following core values:

National liberation, transformation and nation peace-building.
supporting processes of peace and security and conflict transformation in Zimbabwe and
supporting the SADC vision of integration and collaborative security