Few phenomena are more destructive of Africa's development than violent conflict. The weakness of many African states has helped revive tensions between ethno-politics and the demands of the nation-state, while some states have disintegrated with the end of the Cold War. The subsequent reduction in ideological conflict has diminished outside powers' political and military incentives to intervene on the continent.

Contrary to some expectations, an Africa omitted from the calculations of external rivals has not become a more peaceful place. Foreign powers are now less able to influence the outcome of these conflicts and local rivalries cannot depend on external assistance to end wars. In addition, new non-state actors operate more freely and the 'privatisation of war' is a growing phenomenon.

The fact that immediate causes of most African conflicts are now located within rather than between states, poses a problem if potentially dangerous situations are to be identified, analysed and treated in time. All governments are jealous of their sovereignty, and most are sensitive to criticisms of their internal affairs. Hence the need for a neutral body to provide an early warning service by monitoring and evaluating the situation. The Institute for Security Studies is well placed to provide this function since the recent launch of its African Security and Analysis Programme (ASAP). The programme is co-ordinated by Mr Richard Cornwell who has joined ISS from the Africa Institute where he has served as head of the Current Affairs desk and editor of Africa Insight. Mr Cornwell has published widely and is an established scholar of security in Africa.

The African Security and Analysis Programme will explore the roots of particular conflicts with a view to prompt the timely offer of effective services by international organisations such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Much of this information is currently being supplied by parties with a particular agenda and is not subject to critical analysis. It is here that ASAP will make a vital contribution. An independent venture answerable to no government, the programme will deploy its expertise in analysing African problems and quickly relay findings to those best able to offer helpful interventions, advice and mediation. The capacity of ASAP to provide appropriate policy analysis will be supported by the role of Mr Mark Malan and Mr Hussein Solomon as senior researchers within the programme.

The current crop of crises in Africa raises the question of how much longer the United Nations, and by extension the OAU as well, can maintain even a theoretical position of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. Security needs to be viewed more broadly than simply in strategic or military terms. With its fragile environment, African security has to address the needs of people, especially the marginalised, as much as it does the security of the state. Indeed, the two are inseparable.

As an applied research institute, ISS can only achieve its goals if its research products reach the right people. Due to open in January 1998, the Institute's Cape Town office's proximity to Parliament will enable close interaction between ISS and parliamentarians, as well as many other local and foreign policy makers who pass through Cape Town. Although the new office will initially have a crime and policing focus, the Cape Town branch will expose research findings and influence policy makers on broad security issues affecting the country and its neighbours, and will not just focus on crime in South Africa.

In line with these goals, the new office will aim to accommodate promising young South African interns, and in the longer term, international researchers who may wish to link up with ISS projects.

The Institute's influence will be enhanced by the skills of Mr Peter Gastrow, presently the special adviser to the Minister of Safety and Security, who will act as Director of the ISS office in Cape Town. Mr Gastrow is experienced as an advocate, parliamentarian, member of the National Peace Secretariat and the Police Board, and chairperson of the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) sub-council on law and order, and of the Interim Advisory Team in the Ministry. Another addition to the Crime and Policing Policy Programme is Ms Antoinette Louw, until recently a researcher and the editor of the quarterly journals Indicator SA and Crime and Conflict, at the Centre for Social and Development Studies at the University of Natal in Durban. Ms Louw has undertaken several research projects on crime and violence in Natal and beyond, and already serves on a number of committees and task teams within the Ministry of Safety and Security.

The Cape Town office of the ISS will be an integral part of the Institute. All the Institute's publications will be available through the new office and visitors, both local and beyond, will be welcome.