Post-War Regimes and State Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone

Charles Ukeje, Amadu Sesay

Description

The shocks of the unexpected outbreak of violent internal armed conflicts in post Cold War West Africa continue to linger in policy and academic circles. While considerable attention is devoted to explaining the civil wars, there is little understanding of the delicate and unpredictable processes of reconstruction. Post-war reconstruction programmes in Africa have become, by and large, externally driven processes; and while externalisation may not be negative per se, it is important to interrogate how such intervention recognises and interacts with local dynamics, and how it manipulates and conditions the outcomes of post-conflict reconstruction agenda. Investigating the interface between power elite, the nature of post-war regimes and the pattern which post-war reconstruction takes is important both for theory and practice. This original study, by some of West Africa's leading scholars, interrogates post-war reconstruction processes in the twin West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, focusing on the effects of regime types on the nature, scope, success or failure of their post-war reconstruction efforts. Political scientists, diplomats, the international community, donor and humanitarian agencies, advocacy groups, the United Nations and its agencies, would find it an important resource in dealing with countries emerging from protracted violence and civil war.

Informations

• Publié par: CODESRIA
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782869784130
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

POST-WAR REGIMES AND STATE RECONSTRUCTION IN LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE

Amadu Sesay Charles Ukeje Osman Gbla Olawale Ismai l

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

© CODESRIA 2009 Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop, Angle Canal IV P.O. Box 3304 Dakar, 18524, Senegal Website: www.codesria.org

ISBN: 978-2-86978-256-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from CODESRIA.

Typesetting: Daouda Thiam Cover Design: Ibrahima Fofana Printing: Imprimerie Saint-Paul, Dakar, Senegal

Distributed in Africa by CODESRIA Distributed elsewhere by African Books Collective, Oxford, UK. Website: www.africanbookscollective.com

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmentation of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries.

CODESRIA publishes a quarterly journal,Africa Development, the longest standing Africa- based social science journal;Afrika Zamani, a journal of history; theAfrican Sociological Review; theAfrican Journal of International Affairs;Africa Review of Books and theJournal of Higher Education in Africa. The Council also co-publishes theAfrica Media Review;Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue;The African Anthropologist and theAfro-Arab Selections for Social Sciences. The results of its research and other activities are also disseminated through its Working Paper Series, Green Book Series, Monograph Series, Book Series, Policy Briefs and the CODESRIA Bulletin. Select CODESRIA publications are also accessible online at www.codesria.org.

CODESRIA would like to express its gratitude to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA/SAREC), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA), the French Ministry of Cooperation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Rockefeller Foundation, FINIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), IIEP/ADEA, OECD, IFS, OXFAM America, UN/UNICEF, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the Government of Senegal for supporting its research, training and publication programmes.

Contents

Notes on Authors................................................................................................... v List of Tables........................................................................................................ vii List of Figures..................................................................................................... viii Abbreviations.......................................................................................................... ix

Chapter 1 Post-war Regimes and State Reconstruction: A Framework for Analysis and Comparative Experience Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 The Power Elite Factor in Post-war Reconstruction: A Framework for Analysis ................................................................................. 4 Conceptual Issues in Post-war Reconstruction ...................................................... 6 Post-war Reconstruction: A New Phenomenon? ................................................. 8 A Case for Comparative Research on Post-war Reconstruction in Africa .... 10 A Critique of Theory and Practice in Post-war Reconstruction in Africa ...... 12

Chapter 2 State Collapse and Civil Wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone Introduction ............................................................................................................... 19 Political Manipulation, Economic Mismanagement and State Collapse in Liberia .............................................................................................. 20 Sierra Leone: Democratic Misadventures, Civil Wars and Good-bye to Innocence .................................................................................... 26

Chapter 3 Regime Types and Post-war Reconstruction in Liberia Introduction ............................................................................................................... 35 Charles Taylor’s Electoral Victory, Post-war Reconstruction and........................ Peace Building in Liberia ................................................................................... 37 Villain or Statesman? Charles Taylor and the International Community ........ 42 Luring a Drunken Man Out of a China Shop: Charles Taylor’s Exile and Its Effects on Post-war Reconstruction in Liberia ................................ 44 Liberia’s Transitional Government: Post-war Reconstruction in Limbo? ....... 46 Beyond October 2005: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the Future of Liberia ...... 46

iv

Post-war Regimes and State Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone

Chapter 4 Regime Types and Post-war Reconstruction in Sierra Leone Tejan Kabbah and Post-war Reconstruction in Sierra Leone ........................... 55 A Brief Assessment of Tejan Kabbah’s Presidency ........................................... 58 Agents or Obstacles to National Reconciliation? The Special Court and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone ................. 62 The Youth Problem in Post-war Reconstruction ................................................ 69 The Anti-corruption Campaign and Post-war Reconstruction ........................ 71

Chapter 5 Post-war Regimes and Reconstruction: Analysis of Empirical Data from Liberia and Sierra Leone Distribution of Respondents by Location ........................................................... 75 Socio-economic Characteristics of Respondents ............................................... 75 Major Causes of the Civil Wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone ........................... 77 Perceptions of the Peace Processes and the Effects on Post-war Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone ................................................... 79 Post-war Regimes, the International Community and Donor Agencies in Liberia and Sierra Leone ................................................ 84 Obstacles to Post-war Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone ................ 86 The Future of Post-war Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone ............. 90

Chapter 6 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 97

Notes....................................................................................................................... 101

Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 105

Notes on Authors

Amadu Sesay, Professor of International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, attended the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was Director of the CODESRIA Child and Youth Insti- tute in 2003; Claude Ake Visiting Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, University of Uppsala, 2005; and Visiting Professor, Centre d’Etudes Afrique Noire, Bordeaux, October-November 2006. Professor Sesay headed the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria, from July 2000 to August 2006. His research interests include Afri- can politics, security and conflict studies and he has authored several books, monographs, book chapters and journal articles in these areas. His most recent publications are:Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation and Collection in the Niger Delta, Nigeria(2006), edited with Antonia Simbine, andDoes One Size Fit All? The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission Revisited(Nordic Africa Institute 2007).

Charles Ukejea Reader in International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo is University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He won the Mary Kingsley Zochonis Lecture Award of the Royal African Society in 2004 and, the following year, was the Leventis Cooperation Visiting Research Scholar at the Centre for African Studies, SOAS, UK. He was on sabattical, from September 2007, as Lecturer in African Politics and Development at the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. His most recent major work is a co- edited book titledthe State and Regionalism in West Africa: Identity,The Crisis of Citizenship and Conflict(CODESRIA 2005).

Osman GblaSierraholds a doctorate from Fourah Bay College, University of Leone, where he also served as Head of the Department of Political Science and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. He is also the founder of the Centre for Development and Security Analysis (CEDSA) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Dr Gbla was one of the lead consultants that prepared the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Sierra Leone Vision 2025. His research interests include conflict and post-conflict peace building, governance, regional security and security sector reform, focusing