Conflict and Security in Africa is the second in the series of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) Readers. The series is assembled in response to requests from colleagues and activists working within and beyond the continent. Subscribers to ROAPE were increasingly requesting that specific articles in the journal be available in another format, especially for teaching and advocacy work. The popularity of the first volume, The Politics of Transition in Africa, edited by Giles Mohan and Tunde Zack-Williams has encouraged members of the editorial working group to proceed with volume two. The Readers will ensure that there is continued access to relevant material not just for students and teachers but also for grassroots activists.

The Readers do not seek to present a comprehensive overview of a discipline or sub-field. Rather we have brought together articles that reflect the way contributors to ROAPE have interpreted and transformed these debates. The journal, which began in 1974, is committed to a practical politics, which is not simply tied to the more rarefied rarefied world of academic debates. It continues to maintain its identity and remains true to its founding goals of providing radical political economy analysis of inequality, oppression and power in Africa in the context of capitalist globalisation. The material for the Readers comes mostly from issues of ROAPE.

The first volume in the Series was published by James Currey and Africa World Press. We are happy that the collaboration with James Currey (now an imprint of Boydell and Brewer) can continue for the second and future volumes in the Series. Conflict and Security in Africa addresses a most topical subject given the ongoing war on terrorism and western interventions in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.