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

Benjamin Maitre

Third World Quarterly, 2009, vol. 30, issue 1, 53-68

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/01436590802622318

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