The Great African War Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 19962006 [Paperback]

Examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996 to 2006.This book examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996, when the war started, to 2006, when elections formally ended the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a complement to the existing literature, it seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of concurrent developments in Zaire/DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda in African and international contexts and attempts to show the dynamics of the inter-relationships between these realms.This book examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996, when the war started, to 2006, when elections formally ended the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a complement to the existing literature, it seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of concurrent developments in Zaire/DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda in African and international contexts and attempts to show the dynamics of the inter-relationships between these realms.This book examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996, when the war started, to 2006, when elections formally ended the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A unique combination of circumstances explain the unravelling of the conflicts: the collapsed Zairian/Congolese state; the continuation of the Rwandan civil war across borders; the shifting alliances in the region; the politics of identity in Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DRC; the ineptitude of the international community; and the emergence of privatized and criminalized public spaces and economies, linked to the global economy, but largely disconnected from the state  on whose territory the entrepreneurs of insecurity function. As a complement to the existing literature, this book seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of concurrent develol#$