War and State-Building in Africa

Africa lacks number of interstate wars that early modern Europe experienced

- Ethiopian-Somalian 1977-1978 (226 days)

- Ugandan-Tanzanian 1978-1979 (165 days)

- Ethiopian-Eritrean 1998-2000

- interventions in Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo, 1996-2000

Is the European state-formation model a good predictor of state-building?

- European coercion-wielders did not plan to build a sovereign territorial state

- African governments are expected to

20th Century Latin American Experience (C. Thies, 2005)

- State strength measured as tax revenues as % of GDP (extraction)

- actual war did not produce stronger states

- interstate rivalries did

o long-term conflicts with other states

- civil wars weakened states

- greater debt weakened states

Late 20^th Century Asian, African, & Middle East Experience (Thies, 2004)

- covers only 1975-2000

- interstate rivalries improved extraction

- ethnic internal conflicts increase extraction

o not political internal conflicts

African ‘Enduring Rivalries’ (Diehl, 2000)

- Congo v. Zaire

- Uganda v. Kenya

- Somalia v. Ethiopia

- Ethiopia v. Sudan

- Ethiopia v. Eritrea

External Sources of Resources

- development aid

- foreign trade

African State-Building in Historical Perspective

- states may be consolidating their internal rule

o but only one secession (Eritrea, 1991/93)

- external resources substitute for internal ones

Alternatives?

- neo-trusteeship after state failure (Fearon & Laitin, 2005)

- shared sovereignty (Krasner, 2005)

- wait & see

- further democratization