Professor Kofi Nsia-Pepra Publishes Groundbreaking Article

HPJ's Assistant Professor of Political Science Kofi Nsia-Pepra (pictured at left), and Frederick S. Pearson recently published an article in the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development entitled "Official and Illicit Arms Transfer in Southeast Asia."

The paper examines arms transaction in Southeast Asia in the 1990s to study the relationship between weapons acquisition and the escalation or de-escalation of regional conflicts. They found that unregulated flow of small arms threatens and weakens fragile states, and can create a culture of cyclical war and spin-off wars. The authors therefore recommend that coordinated international action is necessary to track, if not restrict such weapon sales. This tracking information can be used to serve as an early warning system that could allow peacekeepers to have a better sense of the relative arms balances and concentrations in regions where they are sent to forestall or mediate conflict. This is the first treatment of this problem in Southeast Asia.

Pearson who has published widely on international relations, is the Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, and teaches political science at Wayne State University. Nsia-Pepra teaches Political Science concentrating on International Relations and Comparative Politics at ONU. Nsia-Pepra worked on his dissertation with Pearson at Wayne State and also served as Pearson's Research Assistant.