What fit for the liberal peace in Africa?

The promotion of the liberal peace as an integral part of external attempts at peacebuilding reflects the hegemony within the developed world vis-à-vis the best way to organise the polity. However, a project based on liberalisation, privatisation and representing the dislocating effects of globalisation has little chance of becoming hegemonic in Africa. This fundamental problem in advancing the liberal peace as a successful project in most parts of Africa, despite the hegemonic support it may enjoy at the global level, is massively compounded by the general absence of hegemony locally. Such a reality militates against any triumphant application of the liberal peace on the continent and, indeed, calls into question the very viability of most of the project's policy prescriptions, expectations and, basic assumptions. What is left then is a virtual peace, generally satisfactory to donors and external actors, and also to the connected domestic elites, but not broadly sustainable nor able to enjoy hegemonic support within Africa itself.