THE BLOODY POLITICS OF EXCLUSION

The estimated , deaths caused by the insurrection in eastern Congo () seem almost puny compared to the scale of the carnage recorded in the decade following the outbreak of the Second Congo War () a death toll estimated at nearly . million by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), with battleeld...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of African history 2013-03, Vol.54 (1), p.123-124
Main Author: LEMARCHAND, RENÉ
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil war
Cold War
Jewish culture
Jewish people
Judaic studies
Politics
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Summary:The estimated , deaths caused by the insurrection in eastern Congo () seem almost puny compared to the scale of the carnage recorded in the decade following the outbreak of the Second Congo War () a death toll estimated at nearly . million by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), with battleeld casualties accounting for only a fraction of the overall losses. Starting from the premise that the politics of exclusion is a major trigger of most civil wars in Congo, the author introduces the reader to a process-tracing model of civil wars which hinges around two major variables: critical antecedents and critical junctures, the rst referring to patterns of change and continuity over time, the other to the impact of exclusionary politics on the circumstances and goals of civil strife. Connecting the dots between past and present is no easy task when we consider the time frame (half a century), the diversity of domestic and international actors, and the radically different contexts separating the rst thirty years of Congos independence from the period that followed, marked by seemingly never-ending wars causing an ever-increasing number of humanitarian disasters.
ISSN:0021-8537
1469-5138
DOI:10.1017/S0021853713000066