REK funded Dr. Agbelengor successfully defended his PhD

Dr. Samson Confidence Agbelengor visited Freiburg and the ACT in the winter semester of 2022/23 and in the summer semester 2023, funded by the REK stipend. He was supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Mehler and has now successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the debate surrounding Ghana's reputation for relative peace and stability in sub-Saharan Africa.

His thesis with the title "A Comparative Analysis of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture and the Ghanaian Peace Architecture under the Fourth Republican Constitution" examines this debate particularly in the context of the growing interest in proactive peacebuilding institutions on the continent led by eminent persons that complement existing robust democratic and traditional governance structures. A comparative analysis of the modalities of this peacebuilding approach with an external, intergovernmental equivalent reveals that an overemphasis on relationship-building in the Ghanaian context undermines effective local peacebuilding, especially when developmental challenges erode internal peace. To promote sustainable peace, this study argues that Ghana could expand its eminent peacebuilding mechanisms by facilitating local and international partnerships and leveraging locally-driven research to channel economic opportunities into areas identified as being at risk of violence.

The thesis was supervised by the commitee of Prof. Abeeku Essuman-Johnson (Lead Supervisor); Prof. Seidu Mahama Alidu and Dr. Nene Lomotey-Kudichar (Co-Supervisors) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon.