25 Table 8: Bar chart
Country
South Africa Mozambique
Botswana DRC
Zimbabwe Namibia
Angola
Count
8
6
4
2
0
Bar Chart
Journalist NGO Rep Civil Society Rep
Representatives of civil society groups
Source: compiled by researcher, 2010
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and places the researcher into a particular position vis-a-vis his reality” (Altheide, 1996:14).
For the purpose of this research, analysis was performed relative to and justified in terms of the context of data. The following basic concepts offered a conceptual framework within which the researcher’s role was represented: the data as communicated to the researcher; the context of the data; how the researcher’s (analyst’s) data partition his/her reality; the target of the content analysis; inferences as the basic intellectual task; and validity as ultimate criterion of success.
The above framework was “intended to serve three purposes: prescriptive, analytical and methodological” (Babbie, 2007:95); Prescriptive in the sense that it guided “the conceptualization and the design of practical content analyses for any given circumstance”
(Babbie, 2007:95); Analytical in the sense that it facilitated the critical examination of context analysis results obtained by others; Methodological in the sense that it directed “the growth and systematic improvement of methods for content analysis” (Babbie, 2007: 95). It is important to look at the matrix diagram below in reference to content analysis in this research project:
Table 9: Data analysis matrix table
Research objectives
Institutions Units of
analysis
Variables Data collection
method
Data analysis method
Objective 1:
Identifying and establishing if the national interests of
1. Government ruling elite, opposition politicians and bureaucrats in intervening and non-
Coalition member 1:
Angola
Variable 1: political
Sub-regional obligation as member of SADC.
MPLA/ADF historical relations and Angolan
Personal interviews (unstructured and informal).
Transcription of the interviews and
questionnaires.
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governments inform their decisions on military interventions.
intervening SADC countries.
2. Key military
personnel in
intervening and non- intervening SADC countries.
3. Academics in SADC countries.
4. Journalists and experts from the target country (DRC).
government’s assistance to ADF in ousting Mobutu?
Open-ended questionnaires.
Coding of
similar themes so as to identify and analyse their
relationship.
Variable 2: economic
Accessibility to Cabinda enclave oilfields.
Securing of profitable networks for Angola national oil company, Sonangol.
Variable 3: security/strategic Preventing UNITA launched attacks from the DRC.
Coalition member2:
Zimbabwe
Variable 1: political
Sub-regional responsibility and obligation as the Organ chair.
Zimbabwe government assistance to ADF in fighting Mobutu?
Variable 2: economic DRC debt repayment?
Protection of Inga hydroelectric power which provides 10 percent of Zimbabwe’s electricity.
Economic investment potential (mining industry).
Variable 3: security
Guarding against minority Hema-Tutsi hegemonic expansion in the sub-region.
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Coalition member 3:
Namibia
Variable 1: political
Sub-regional obligation as a SADC member state.
SWAPO/ ADF historical relations and Namibian government’s assistance to ADF in ousting Mobutu.
Variable 2: economic US$25m DRC/Namibia trade deal.
Variable 3: security
Preventing UNITA
destabilization of northern Namibia and links with secessionist Caprivi Strip Liberation Movement.
Objective 2:
To ascertain the extent to which the varying national interests would develop into common interests among
the AZN
coalition members.
1. Government ruling elite, opposition politicians and bureaucrats in intervening and non- intervening SADC countries.
2. Key military
personnel in
intervening and non- intervening SADC countries.
Commonality
of AZN
coalition interests
Political:
OPDS protocol on mutual defence against foreign aggression of a member state, the AZN coalition’s Mutual Defence Pact meant to harmonise political commonality, the AZN Joint Permanent Commission on politics Defence and Security during the intervention.
Personal interviews (unstructured and informal).
Open-ended questionnaires.
Transcription of the interviews and
questionnaire.
Coding of
similar themes so as to identify and analyse their
relationship.
Economic:
DRC/AZN joint mineral
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3. Academics in SADC countries.
4. Journalists and experts from the target country (DRC).
business ventures.
Military:
Establishment of Joint Task Force Headquarters, Mission Command and Common Operational Doctrine.
Objective 3:
To offer policy suggestions on the executions
of future
military interventions in African conflicts, particularly at the SADC sub- regional level.
1. Government ruling elite, opposition politicians and bureaucrats in intervening and non- intervening SADC countries.
2. Key military
personnel in
intervening and non- intervening SADC countries.
3. Academics in SADC countries.
4. Journalists and experts from the target country (DRC).
Strategic and operational challenges
The synergy between political leadership decisions and top military hierarchy on mission design, joint AZN mission execution and exit strategy.
Personal interviews (unstructured and informal).
Open-ended questionnaires.
Transcription of the interviews and
questionnaire.
Coding of
similar themes so as to identify and analyse their
relationship.
Source: Compiled by Author, 2007-2011
30
In any content analysis endeavour, it must be clear which data are being analysed, how they are defined and from which population they are drawn. In this study, data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The target population was politicians, bureaucrats, military personnel and academics from those countries which took part in the intervention and those countries which did not take part. Whilst data was made available to the researcher, the context was not available. Data gathered only exhibited their own syntax and structure, described in terms of units, categories, and variables, or coded into a multi-dimensional scheme. It was not possible for the research study to manipulate reality. This enabled the research study not to leave out anything of importance by selecting material that fits the researcher’s own ideas and thereby affecting the objectivity of the thesis research project.
In any content analysis, the context relative to which data are analysed must be made explicit and whilst data are made available, the “context is constructed by the content analyst to include all surrounding conditions, antecedent, coexisting, or consequent” (Krippendorff, 2004: 69). The need for delineating the context of the content analysis was particularly important because there were no logical limits as to the kinds of context the researcher would have wanted to consider. This particular thesis project limited itself from the period of the AZN coalition of the willing’s military intervention from 1998 to 2002, although some reference was made to the pre-intervention and post-intervention period. These limitations are often are part and parcel of the disciplinary conventions and practical problems that dictate the choice of these boundaries to any given research (Philipps, 1997:190).
Mostyn observes that “for any content analysis, the analyst’s interest and knowledge determine the construction of the context within which inferences are realised and it is therefore important that a content analyst has knowledge about the origin of the data and that
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he reveals the assumptions he makes about how the data and their environment interact”
(Mostyn, 1985:77). Mostyn further notes that, “content analysis uses available data and knowledge of stable configurations to remove uncertainties about the unstable pattern in the context of its data” (Mostyn (1985:77). In the context of this research, it is through content analysis that the uncertainties surrounding the varied motivations behind the military intervention by the AZN coalition and the synchronized political strategy were be established.
In any content analysis the aim or target of the inferences must be clearly stated. The target is what the researcher (analyst) will want to know about. In this research the operational hypothesis is that the national interests of governments are the primary motivating factors that inform their decisions on military interventions. This research brought out the political strategy behind the idea of achieving varied interests pursued through a collective and synchronized military intervention mechanism. Weitzmann observes that “since content analysis can provide vicarious knowledge, information about something not directly observed, this target is located in the variable portion of the context of available data.
Although there is ample room for exploratory studies during which the researcher makes up his mind as to what his focus of attention will be, he/she has to come up with a clear direction” (Weitzmann, 1995:94). Only if the target of a content analysis is stated can the researcher “judge whether the content analysis is completed and specify the kind of evidence eventually needed to validate the results” (Weitzmann, 1995:94) .
Weitzmann further observes that “in any content analysis, the task is to make inferences from data to certain aspects of their context and to justify these inferences in terms of the knowledge about the stable factors in the system of interest” (Weitzmann, 1995:95; see also
32
Mostyn, 1985:77). Through this process, data can be referred to as symbolic and informative about something of interest to the researcher. The kind of evidence needed to validate the results must be specific or sufficiently clear in advance so as to make validation conceivable.
Although it is the raison d’etre of content analysis that direct evidence about the phenomenon of interest is missing and must be inferred, at least the criterion “for an ex post facto validation of results must be clear so as to allow others to gather suitable evidence and see whether the inferences were indeed accurate” (Philipps, 1997:190).
In summary, data were dissociated from sources (both primary and secondary) and communicated to this researcher who in turn placed the data in a context that he constructed,
“based on knowledge of the surrounding conditions of the data, including what he intended to know about the target of the content analysis” (Phillips, 1997:190). His knowledge about the stable dependencies within the system of interest allowed him to make inferences to the context of the data. The content analysis results represented some feature of reality and the nature of this reality was verifiable in principle.