In August 2022, Angola will hold the country’s most competitive elections since the end of the civil war in 2002. Amid economic instability and popular discontent, the opposition hopes to finally defeat the MPLA, which has held power since 1975. However, the ruling party will do all it can to avoid this outcome, whether through more or less legitimate means.

A long-time ally of Russia on the continent, Angola has borrowed many of the same strategies as its former Cold War patron. It too regards multiparty politics as a zero-sum game and uses intimidation and violence to maintain the status quo.

As explored in Angola’s Securitised State, the “securitisation” of the regime stretches back three decades. In both war and peacetimes, the MPLA has silenced political opponents, distorted the state, emboldened elites, and redefined Angolan identity.

Through this lens, Paula Cristina Roque explores the inner workings of Angola’s intelligence services, army and presidential guard, explaining the trajectory of a fearful regime for whom the survival of security and governing elites has been the highest priority.

Join us for the London launch and panel discussion with author Paula Cristina Roque and special guests.

Recording of live event

Paula Cristina Roque is an independent analyst. She has been an adviser on sub-Saharan Africa for the Crisis Management Initiative, a senior analyst for Southern Africa with the International Crisis Group, and a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies. She is a founding member of the South Sudan Center for Strategic and Policy Studies in Juba and has a PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford.