African Conflicts in the Early 21st Century
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Authors
Prunier, Gerard
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2011
Date
October 2011
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract
Africa was decolonized between 1956 and 1975, with the bulk of African states reaching independence during the 1960s. Since then, Africa has become—and remains today—the most violence-prone of the five continents. In spite of that fact, African wars are often understudied and considered negligible. When the Rwandan Genocide burst upon international attention in 1994, few people seemed to realize that it was the consequence of a war that had been going on for three-and-a-half years. And when a war involving 14 states eventually broke out in central Africa in 1996 as a result of that genocide, and lasted six years, it barely seemed to affect international opinion, even though it was the most murderous conflict since World War Two. A terrorist attack in Europe or Israel immediately makes the headlines even if only a handful of victims die. But hundreds or even thousands can die in Africa without making it to the front pages of newspapers. This is due to a mixture of racism, lack of perceived strategic significance, and cultural isolation. But all these factors are now changing, and African conflicts in the future will tend to become more and more relevant to the way the world works, and how it looks at itself.
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Article
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Citation
Strategic Insights, v.10, Special issue (October 2011)
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.