Posts by: Alex DeWaal
Below is an excerpt from Alex de Waal’s essay, “Violence and peacemaking in the political marketplace” in Legitimacy and Peace Processes: from Coercion to Consent (Accord 25); pgs. 17 – 21. Full text available online.
The implication is the starting point for a legitimate process, leading to a legitimate agreement, is enabling the affected [...]
Continue Reading →The unique structure of the SPLA means that the same kleptocratic principle applies to local leaders and army commanders in rural areas. This generates the “rent-seeking rebellion” cycle:
The level of fatalities among soldiers and civilians is completely disproportionate to the claims of the rebel leader or mutineer.
This in turn [...]
Continue Reading →In 1968, the Polish political scientist Stanislav Andreski wrote, “The essence of kleptocracy is that the functioning of the organs of authority is determined by the mechanisms of supply and demand rather than the laws and regulations.”
Corruption in an institutionalized system of governance is the abuse of public office for private gain. In a [...]
Continue Reading →In January 2012, as a response to a dispute with the Government of Sudan on the terms in which South Sudanese oil was to be transported to market—and as a reaction to the Sudanese authorities diverting its oil to their own refineries and ships—the Government of the Republic of South Sudan decided to shut down [...]
Continue Reading →It is important to remember that at the time when the CPA was signed, the SPLA had not won the war. It had not defeated the Sudanese Armed Forces and was not even the largest southern Sudanese armed group—if the diverse militia that comprised the South Sudan Defence Forces were combined together, they would rival [...]
Continue Reading →Alex de Waal, Chad Hazlett, Christian Davenport and and Joshua Kennedy co-authored a new article in Social Science & Medicine,”The epidemiology of lethal violence in Darfur: Using micro-data to explore complex patterns of ongoing armed conflict.” Below is the abstract, full text available through the journal.
This article describes and analyzes patterns of lethal [...]
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