Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College

This study analyses leadership patterns in Ghana's health and security institutions since 1992, with a particular emphasis on the sex composition of senior positions in the Ghana Health Service, the Armed Forces, and the Police Service. A mixed-methods approach was employed, comprising a qualitative literature review, quantitative analysis of the Ghana Police Service rank hierarchies, assessment of the Military Occupational Physical Assessment Test in relation to Military Occupational Specialties, and content analysis of relevant sections of the Affirmative Action Act (2024). In 2025, women represented 39% of doctors (5,068/12,900), 30% of police officers (12,945/43,968), and 15% of soldiers (2,400/16,000) in Ghana. Leadership in the Ghana Armed Forces remained male-dominated, with fewer than five female Generals among 115 in the forces and only one female Inspector-General of Police since 1992. Statistical analysis of police rank distribution showed a significant association between sex and rank (χ², p < 0.05), indicating persistent disparities in career progression. Findings highlight systemic institutional barriers affecting women's advancement in Ghana's health and security sectors. Targeted institutional reforms aligned with the requirements and merit-based principles of the Affirmative Action Act (2024) are necessary to address the disparities and strengthen equitable representation.

Environmental taxes are increasingly used as fiscal instruments to internalize environmental externalities and finance renewable energy investments. Environmental taxes are increasingly utilized as fiscal instruments to internalize environmental externalities and finance renewable energy investments. This study examines the nonlinear, regime-dependent relationship between environmental tax volatility and the renewable energy transition in Ukraine, aiming to identify stable tax regimes that effectively support renewable energy development. The study employs annual time-series data from the World Development Indicators covering the period 1980-2023. Preliminary analyses include descriptive statistics, unit root tests (ADF and PP), OLS estimation, and non-linearity diagnostics (BDS and CUSUM tests). Ordinary Least Squares results indicate that a 1% increase in environmental tax revenue increases renewable energy transition by 0.8329% (p &lt; 0.01). Markov switching results identify two distinct regimes. Regime 2 records a higher coefficient (0.7812) and stronger persistence (P22 = 0.970) compared to Regime 1 (0.7016; P11 = 0.909). Regime 2 demonstrates lower volatility, higher mean values (0.9337), and a longer duration of approximately 33 years, indicating a stable and sustained environmental tax regime that effectively supports renewable energy transition. Maintaining stable, consistent environmental tax regimes should be the top priority for policymakers to ensure stable, consistent funding for renewable energy investments, build greater public trust, and accelerate the achievement of SDG 7 in Ukraine.

ABSTRACT This article explores China’s outsourcing of security functions to the private sector within the broader context of the security privatization scholarship, offering a nuanced understanding of the relationship between Beijing’s security privatization and the political-instrumentalist theory. Specifically, it tests how the theory fares against the Chinese system – a governance system other than democracies. How does China’s use of Chinese Military and Security Companies (CMSCs) affect the political-instrumentalist theorization of the PMSCs scholarship? How does China’s trajectory – overtly pursuing security pluralization but covertly defying security privatization as explained by Western cases – influence the study and theorization of the security privatization scholarship? I utilize qualitative research design, organizing data from publicly available Chinese official security and defence documents to answer the questions. It draws on content and discourse analyses to argue that the safety of Chinese national interests abroad and the government’s desire to respond to Chinese people’s demand for protection and avoid political costs incentivizes Chinese governmental actors to outsource overseas security functions and services to CMSCs. This situation becomes a strategy of accepting greater rather than shirking responsibility or evading accountability, contradicting the political-instrumentalist explanation of security privatization.

ABSTRACT The article provides a historical analysis of the evolution of ‘Peacekeeping-Intelligence’ (PKI) as a UN intelligence system and tool of conflict management. It examines the processes leading to the development of the PKI Policy by analyzing the analytical entities that cumulatively contextualized these developments. It also examines the institutional mechanisms at the UNHQ, the underlying logic, and the challenges surrounding these processes. The article first traces the various iterations of information and analysis structures within the UN since the early 1960s. It then focuses on intelligence developments in the 1990s and the new millennium, where the lack of intelligence capabilities, particularly at the mission level, was identified as an underlining factor for the operational problems faced by the UN. It concludes with an examination of the PKI policy as an evolutionary step in UN peacekeeping. The paper argues that PKI offers a new pathway to effective peacekeeping and provides a foundation for enhanced decision-making through situational awareness, the safety and security of peacekeepers, and the protection of civilians.

Historically, arms races generate a great deal of interest both in the academia and policy circles for a variety of reasons. They are widely believed to have significant consequences for states' security. In the debate over their consequences, one side holds that arms races increase the probability of war by undermining military stability and straining political relations. The opposing view holds that engaging in an arms race is often a state's best option for avoiding war when faced with an aggressive adversary. The 21st Century is witnessing the return of arms race amongst states. Coupling with the advancements in technology, the menace of arms race in the 21st Century, therefore, if not curtailed could lead to war more devastating than witnessed in the last century. Using basic content analysis the study revealed that the 21st Century arms races are mainly in the area of nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles, missile defence, cyber-warfare, and space weaponisation. The arms races are prominently amongst the world’s great powers such as the United States of America, Russia, and China as well as developing states like Iran and North Korea. This study discovered that nuclear weapons are still at the forefront of arms race in the 21st Century, despite efforts to reduce their role in global affairs and to negotiate further reductions in quantity. Also, states like the USA, China, and Russia are exploiting the advantage of speed and manoeuvrability to engage in arms race in hypersonic missiles. This has prompted nations to compete in the development of missile defences in order to counter the present missile threats. Furthermore, in anticipation for future warfare, nations such as the USA, China, and Russia are in arms race to weaponsise space by deploying space to space, earth to space and space to earth weapons, where appropriate. War in the 21st Century could in turn lead to more human, material, and environmental casualties due to the latest advancement in technologies and modernisation of existing weapons and associated equipments. Consequently, measures are needed to ensure that arms races in the 21st Century, if not eliminated, are reduced to the barest minimum in order to promote international peace and security. Renewed commitments on existing arms control measures, formulation of new arms control measures, and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons are the measures that could be considered.

BackgroundTicks are important vectors of various pathogenic protozoa, bacteria and viruses that cause serious and life-threatening illnesses in humans and animals worldwide. Estimating tick-borne pathogen prevalence in tick populations is necessary to delineate how geographical differences, environmental variability and host factors influence pathogen prevalence and transmission. This study identified ticks and tick-borne pathogens in samples collected from June 2016 to December 2017 at seven sites within the Coastal, Sudan and Guinea savanna ecological zones of Ghana.MethodsA total of 2016 ticks were collected from domestic animals including cattle, goats and dogs. Ticks were morphologically identified and analysed for pathogens such as Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), Alkhurma haemorrhagic fever virus (AHFV), Rickettsia spp. and Coxiella burnetii using polymerase chain reaction assays (PCR) and sequence analysis.ResultsSeven species were identified, with Amblyomma variegatum (60%) most frequently found, followed by Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (21%), Rhipicephalus spp. (9%), Hyalomma truncatum (6%), Hyalomma rufipes (3%), Rhipicephalus evertsi (1%) and Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) sp. (0.1%). Out of 912 pools of ticks tested, Rickettsia spp. and Coxiella burnetii DNA was found in 45.6% and 16.7% of pools, respectively, whereas no CCHFV or AHFV RNA were detected. Co-infection of bacterial DNA was identified in 9.6% of tick pools, with no statistical difference among the ecozones studied.ConclusionsBased on these data, humans and animals in these ecological zones are likely at the highest risk of exposure to rickettsiosis, since ticks infected with Rickettsia spp. displayed the highest rates of infection and co-infection with C. burnetii, compared to other tick-borne pathogens in Ghana.Graphical

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the adoption of marketing techniques in academic libraries in Ghana, and how they are applied in the promotion of their services to patrons.Design/methodology/approachAdopting the qualitative research approach, a total of 21 professional and para-professional library staff from three private universities participated in the study. The main data collection instrument was the use of semi-structured interviews. Data gathered was analysed, discussed and presented thematically.FindingsThe findings revealed that the study's participants are fully aware of the benefits of inculcating marketing activities into their daily routines and were making efforts at making their users aware of their products and services with the use of various strategies including the deployment of social media tools. Some of the challenges that were discovered to hinder the success of marketing in the libraries were lack of funds, lack of knowledge of marketing techniques by staff and a lack of marketing policy to guide marketing in the libraries.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study imply that, even though carried on a few academic libraries, the same can apply to most academic libraries as the characteristics are generally the same.Practical implicationsTo boost marketing initiatives in the selected university libraries, the following recommendations informed by the findings of the study are made: creation of marketing policies, increase use of social networking sites for marketing, organization of seminars and workshops on marketing, diversifying sources of funding for libraries and conducting user surveys.Social implicationsThe implementation of the recommendations has the potential to increase the level of interactions between academic libraries and their patrons as well as impact positively on the information-seeking behaviour of library patrons.Originality/valueApart from the application of works of other scholars, which have been duly cited and acknowledged, the entirety of this study or research output is the result of the handiworks of the researchers. Again, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work has not been a production of existing research nor is earlier published in any journal.