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In this book, Steven C. Roach addresses the effects of the South-South war in South Sudan, showing how it has troubled the transition to statehood and the transitional government of national unity. Throughout, he stresses how the government has failed to adequately promote core standards of accountability and shows how the Sudan People's Liberation Movement remained a largely militaristic organization that dominated control of the country's political destiny and became a powerful deterrent to democracy, security, justice, and national unity. Comprehensive in scope, the book represents the first systematic examination of the foundations of South Sudan's quandary both before and after its civil war. Yet it offers hope for a moral reckoning through the promising efforts to advance hybrid justice and to pressure the government to implement a truth commission, war crimes court, and reparations commission.
List of contents
- Preface
- Introduction Building Peace in a State of War
- Chapter 1: Slave Soldiers, British Colonial Rule, and Armed Resistance
- Chapter 2: A Divided Movement and a Framework for Peace
- Chapter 3: The Troubled Transition
- Chapter 4: Kleptocracy and its Warring Contents
- Chapter 5: Impunity, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Justice
- Chapter 6: A Revitalized Peace Agreement
- Chapter 7: A Transitional Government and the Prospects for Peace and National Unity
- Notes
- Index
About the author
Steven C. Roach is Professor and Distinguished Scholar of International Relations at the University of South Florida. A Fulbright Scholar (2020-21), he has written extensively on South Sudan's politics and published widely on international ethics and affairs. From 2019-2020, he served as Country Expert of USAID's Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance assessment team in South Sudan (2019-2020). Among his most recent books are International Relations: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition (2022), Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First Century Warfare (2020), Decency and Difference (2019), and The Challenge of Governance in South Sudan (2019).
Summary
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement marked the end of Sudan's second civil war between the North and South. But in creating an autonomous southern region and a pathway toward statehood, it failed to resolve the effects of rebel factionalism, party infighting, and corruption in the South.
In South Sudan's Fateful Struggle, Steven C. Roach analyzes these persistent effects of the South-South war, showing how they disrupted the transition to statehood and divided the transitional government of national unity in South Sudan. Throughout, he stresses the centrality of elite mismanagement and the durable dynamics of war which have shaped the country's troubled political destiny. The government, plagued by patronage-fueled corruption and patrimonialism, continues to rely on the threat of violence to govern the country and to delay the transition to a new government of national unity. Roach argues that in naturally sowing division and distrust, government elites must ultimately learn to engage civil society to achieve long-term peace, accountability, and justice. Along with providing an overview of the country's trajectory in this century, Roach traces its state of war to colonial times and uses the notion of militarized patronage to describe the distinct nature of South Sudan's patronage networks. He shows how the Sudan People's Liberation Movement came to dominate the country's affairs to become a powerful deterrent to democracy, security, justice, and national unity. He then discusses the promising efforts by civil society actors to advance hybrid justice by pressuring the government to implement a truth commission, a war crimes court, and reparations commission.
Comprehensive in scope, the book represents the first systematic examination of South Sudan's quandary both before and after its civil war.
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A superb, well-documented analysis.
