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Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War in Africa

On June 26th, 2007, the Africa Program hosted an event entitled "Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War in Africa" with Philip Roessler, a 2006 Africanist Doctoral Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Date & Time

Tuesday
Jun. 26, 2007
10:00am – 12:00pm ET

Overview

A presentation by Philip Roessler, Doctoral Candidate with the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland and Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University.

Moderator: Howard Wolpe, Director of the Africa Program and Project on Leadership and State Building Capacity, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

On June 26th, 2007, the Africa Program hosted an event entitled "Darfur in Comparative Perspective: Regime Crises, Political Exclusion and Civil War in Africa" with Philip Roessler, a 2006 Africanist Doctoral Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Between 2005 and 2007, Roessler spent 14 months in Sudan and neighboring countries conducting field research on the conflict in Darfur.

Roessler presented his research findings on the causes of the conflict in Darfur, focusing his analysis on how the split in the Sudanese ruling party, the Islamic Movement, in 1999-2000, influenced the conflict. Roessler noted that the split between the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, and the secretary general of the Islamic Movement, Hassan al-Turabi, weakened the regime's information network in Darfur where the Islamic Movement served as the informal clientelist ruling network. As the Islamic Movement split, it became hard to differentiate between al-Bashir's and al-Turabi's followers. This resulted in the al-Bashir faction utilizing ethnicity to create further division among the opposition. Eventually the network was reconstructed, via exclusion, purging, and the politicization of ethnicity, which resulted in a civil war. The Zhagawa ethnic group in Darfur, suspected of loyalty to al-Turabi, was the prime target of government actions, and subsequently rebelled. The new government intelligence network was unreliable and this led President al-Bashir to underestimate the capacity of dissident forces in Darfur. For instance, al-Bashir vowed to "crush" rebel forces in April of 2003, but was taken by surprise when two weeks later these forces launched a full scale attack and occupied the Al-Fasher airport in Darfur .

Roessler argued that the Sudanese civil war, far from being an isolated case, has lessons which apply to conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, in attempting to avoid coups d'état at all costs, many African regimes are uncertain about who to trust, rely on informal networks as their source of authority rather than on formal bureaucracy and turn to exclusion, purging, aggressive targeting of suspected opposition, and consequently increase the risks of civil war occurring. Roessler believes that as a political or regime crisis ensues, a split to the informal network often deprives the central authority of reliable information that is critical to preserve national security and avoid civil war.

Drafted by Thierry Uwamahoro, Africa Program Intern and Roseline Fodouop Tekeu, Program Assistant, Africa Program.

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Africa Program

The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations.    Read more

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