John Stupart.com

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my academic interest (strategic studies) and what I might potentially study next year should university deem me acceptable. While confined to coursework I should still – much like my honours year – be able to molest my degree into a shape that I might fine suitable. For next year’s MA thesis, I have two distinct topics which I find particularly interesting.

The first one involves the endemic and chronic pattern of crises which afflict African states annually. Genocide, civil war, post-conflict development and just how on earth to do a better job than the UN. I’ve written a little bit about this in more emphatic terms earlier this month. Figuring out how to minimise the damage done by conflict, or at the least ensure it doesn’t happen again for a long long time is extremely critical I think. It’s not a problem that’ll go away, nor is it something that will be easily dampened, but I do think there should be a better way to manage it. A few years ago I thought following the Sierra Leone model of employing mercenaries was sufficient, but I’ve come to the current conclusion that using Private Military Contractors (PMCs) should be carefully managed. I don’t think they’re abhorrent baby-killing children of the Devil, but I do think that – much like a formal military – it should be carefully managed. And I think within a privatised environment it’s entirely possible. I don’t have all the answers for that yet, but damnit! That’s the whole point of research; if I knew it all before I started it really would just be a glorified book review. I started out in Honours wanting to write something on Iraq and Afghanistan and some broad overarching notion that I’d held securely in my head, but wound up scouring maps, video footage and strategic assessments of just one engagement in a single Iraqi city. In research, it seems the lower down to the ground your ivory tower is, the better the ability to see what’s actually going on. Just like how great danes make terrible truffle sniffers whereas piggies are just perfect. Or something…

The other surrounds the newly-made-famous scourge of piracy around the Gulf of Aden in Somalia’s waters. In 2006 I wanted to do this topic originally, but was firmly rebuffed by my supervisor due to lack of reliable sources (ie it wasn’t popular.) With the capture of several huge tankers carrying oil and tanks and suchlike important things for world development, piracy is starting to really catch on as a buzz word in International Politics. More importantly for me, the angle of potential usage of PMCs is already being tested out there in the field (or is that ‘water’ in this case?) with several companies offering security services in different packages and practices. Much like the problems on Africa’s soil, I believe that PMCs could provide a very viable solution to this problem, but again must be carefully organised and structured.

So those are my thoughts! As I’ve said many times before, conflict fascinates me, and I hope I can carry on studying it as long as I live. Of course, how long I live in a field like that could be entirely relevant! For now though, I put my hope in Wits University realising just how damned awesome I am and let me go there! If not I shall have to pee in their library archives.