Durable Peace: Challenges for Peacebuilding in Africa

Front Cover
Taisier Mohamed Ahmed Ali, Robert O. Matthews
University of Toronto Press, 2004 M01 1 - 443 pages

The African continent has been racked with war in the years since decolonization. In the aftermath of violent conflict, peace is often fragile. With Durable Peace, Taisier M. Ali and Robert O. Matthews have brought together leading scholars to discuss the experiences of ten African countries --Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe-- in recovering from violent civil war.

In this series of remarkable and thought-provoking essays, the contributors shed light on the process of peacebuilding. Collectively, they demonstrate that if efforts to restore peace in war-torn societies are to be successful, such efforts must be wide in scope, involving security and political issues, as well as economic development and socio-psychological reconciliation. Additionally, they must be extended over long periods of time and, above all else, anchored in the local community.

Peacebuilding is a difficult process, subject to frequent setbacks, and sometimes outright failure. Durable Peace concludes that any peacebuilding effort must include at least four building blocks: a secure environment, new political institutions that are broadly representative, a healthy economy, and a mechanism for dealing with injustices of the past and future. How these blocks are put together will vary, but if they are arranged to fit the specific local circumstances, the outcome will likely be self-sustaining peace.

 

Contents

Maps and Credits
5
PostCivil War Transitions in Ethiopia
19
Ethiopia
21
Obstacles to Peacebuilding in Rwanda
61
Rwanda
63
The Politics of Consolidation under Musevenis Regime
86
Uganda
88
Reconstructing Peace in Liberia
115
South Africa
185
Zimbabwe and Sustainable Peacebuilding
219
Zimbabwe
221
International versus Local Attempts at Peacebuilding
253
Somalia
255
Sudan 19721983 and Angola
282
Sudan
284
Conceptual and Operational
315

Liberia
117
The Peace Dividend in Mozambique 19871997
142
Mozambique
144
The Costs and Benefits
183
Structural Deficits and Institutional Adaptations to Conflict
354
The Long and Difficult Road to Peace
393
CONTRIBUTORS
427
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About the author (2004)

Taisier M. Ali is an independent scholar living in Toronto. Robert O. Matthews is a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

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