Clausewitz and African War

Description

Oil, diamonds, timber, food aid - just some of the suggestions put forward as explanations for African wars in the past decade.

Another set of suggestions focuses on ethnic and clan considerations. These economic and ethnic or clan explanations contend that wars are specifically not fought by states for political interests with mainly conventional military means, as originally suggested by Carl von Clausewitz in the 19th century. This study shows how alternative social organizations to the state can be viewed as political actors using war as a political instrument.

Author Bio

Isabelle Duyvesteyn is a lecturer at the Department of History of International Relations at the Institute of History, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Previously she held appointments at the Royal Military Academy in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Institute for International Relations. Her research interests include civil war, Africa and humanitarian intervention. Her most recent publications have been with the Swedish National Defence College, in Security Studies and several Dutch language journals.

Related Subjects

1. Military & Naval History
2. African History