What Sustains ‘Internal Wars’? The dynamics of violent conflict and state weakness in Sudan

Bibliographic Data

ID11188151
AuthorsBenjamin R Maitre (Naval Postgraduate School, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume30
Issue1
Pages53-68
Publication date2009-02-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThird World Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-6597 • E-ISSN: 1360-2241
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01436590802622318
OpenAlexW2041609386
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This contribution emphasises the need for a contextual rather than causal analysis of internal wars. Using Sudan's intransigent north–south divide and the crisis in Darfur as case studies, the underlying argument is that, over the course of Sudanese history since independence in 1956, both rebels and regimes have mobilised conditions of conflict to advance their political and economic agendas. The contemporary international system, in which war is understood as both an aberration and a problem with a presupposed solution, compartmentalises the varied and complex interactions of nation-states within a framework that is far from universally applicable. This encourages, even facilitates, the politics of warlordism in internal wars, particularly in the so-called ‘developing’ nation-states. In Sudan conditions of conflict with self-reinforcing tendencies outweigh the power of existing peace agreements. Issues of resource allocation and political marginalisation provide a volatile context for sustaining the internal wars in Sudan indefinitely and make the success of current or future peace agreements unlikely if not impossible

Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economics · Independence (probability theory · Internal conflict · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · African history and culture analysis · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · History · Law · Political Conflict and Governance

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