Lt.Gen. Romeo Dallaire, 2004 Published by: Arrow Books ISBN: 10: 0679311726 13: 978-0679311720

Reviewed by: Cedric De Coning, Research Fellow at ACCORD and advisor to the Training for Peace (TfP) programme
In Conflict Trends Issue 4 of 2005

General Romeo Dallaire has done the peacekeeping community an enormous service by painstakingly reconstructing the events that led to the Rwanda genocide and the international community’s response, or lack thereof, in the days and months that followed. The book is written from his personal experiences and painful memories as commander of the United Nations (UN) forces in Rwanda. He sheds light on the various historic and political events that built up to the genocide, including the broken political process and the apathy of the world as events unfolded in Rwanda. What sets this book apart is the insight General Dallaire provides into the workings of the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) and its relationship with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the UN headquarters in New York.

Edited by P. Mathoma; G. Mills & J. Stremlau Published by: South African Institute Of International Affairs (Saiia), 2000 ISBN: 10: 1919810145 13: 978-1919810140

Reviewed by: Senzo Ngubane, Research Officer, ACCORD
In Conflict Trends Issue 1 of 2000

The twenty-first century, Africa’s 53 countries stood out as the stage of unending conflict, where death and poverty became the order of the day. Visuals of malnourished Angolan children show the result of an ugly civil war; thousands of human skeletons exhumed after the Rwanda genocide, which was all due to the politics of identity; and civilians with amputated limps in Sierra Leone – all these images and many more will forever serve as a reminder that the twenty-first century was not kind to Africa.

By Margaret Oguli-Oumo, Et Al Published by: London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002 ISBN: 10: 0850927145 13: 978-0850927146

Reviewed by: C. Mufanawejingo
In Conflict Trends Issue 1 of 2004

As gender-based violence continues to be endemic in different forms, the need for various tools to combat it is enormous. In a move to contribute towards adopting a holistic approach to the fight against gender-based violence (GBV), the commonwealth secretariat has produced a training manual entitled promoting integrated approach to combat gender-based violence.

Edited by Philip Nel and Patrick McGowan University of Cape Town Press, South Africa, 1999 ISBN: 10: 1919713301 13: 978-1919713304

Reviewed by: Jo-Ansie van Wyk, Department of Political Sciences University of South Africa (UNISA) Pretoria, South Africa.
In Conflict Trends Issue 3 of 1999

Dedicated to the thousands of students in Africa who, often under difficult conditions, study International Relations, and commissioned by the Foundation for Global Dialogue, this publication is a collaboration by contributors from a number of South African and United States institutions.

Sandra Postel Published by: New York & London: WW Norton & Co ISBN: 10: 0393319377 13: 978-0393319378

Reviewed in Conflict Trends Issue 2 of 2000

In her book Pillar of Sand, Sandra Postel’s contribution is rather unique. She combines well-crafted language and solid primary material with deep insight, making the book easy to read. While her Malthusian-style may open her to criticism, she has worked skillfully.

Edited by Jakkie Cilliers and Peggy Mason Published by: Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, 1999 ISBN: 10: 0620238348 13: 978-0620238342

Reviewed by: Ian Liebenberg Senior Political Analyst, Group: Democracy and Governance, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), and Research Associate, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa.
In Conflict Trends Issue 3 of 1999

‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you’ – Leon Trotsky, quoted in Alvin and Heidi Toffler, War and Anti-war, 1993

Conflict – the unenviable, yet inevitable thread flowing through history from premodern to modern times (and now through post-modern times, if some are to be believed) – continuously threatens individual and community safety and sometimes even world peace and stability. But violence is not only spreading; the horror image carried in graphic novels of a privatisation of security together with 'global' (read 'capital') interests is coming perilously close to reality.

Edited by S. Field Published by: Institute for Global Dialogue, Johannesburg, 2004 ISBN: 10: 1919697675 13: 978-1919697673

Reviewed by Britt de Klerk
In Conflict Trends Issue 2 of 2004

From the League of Nations to the United Nations to the regionalisation of security, one has witnessed the trend from collective security to collaborative security mechanisms and structures. While the earlier approaches to security focused more on collective security and responses to inter-sate conflict and upheld the motto ‘an attack on one is an attack on us all’, the changing international context with the end of the Cold War and increased intra-state conflict ushered in the more cooperative response to security as embraced by the global trend of regionalism. This trend has been largely prevalent in trade and economic considerations; however, the benefits of regionalism in these sectors have promoted the move towards a collaborative framework of security. At the same time, while these benefits did indeed play a contributory role in this move towards regionalisation of security, it was also largely based on the understanding that conflict under- mines economic growth and thus preventing and managing conflict is vital for economic stability. Africa is currently building the blocks for a collaborative security regime in Africa as enshrined in the principles of the African Union’s (AU’s) Peace and Security Council. It is therefore timely that a book analysing the prospects for collaborative security in Africa is produced.

Princeton N. Lyman Published by: United States Institute of Peace Press, Washington, D.C., 2002 ISBN: 10: 1929223366 13: 978-1929223367

Reviewed by: Brendan Vickers
In Conflict Trends Issue 3 of 2002

In the early 1990s, South Africa was a cause ce’le’bre of the early US-centred ‘new world order’. Amid fratricidal war and communal conflict in settings as diverse as Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Kashmir, South Africans themselves – who were actively supported and encouraged by foreign political actors – negotiated an end to apartheid authoritarianism, as well as its ignominious exclusionary practices. The pariah state of the Cold War years soon emerged as the paragon and ‘miracle’ of the 1990s.

Hussein Solomon Published by: Unisa Press, Pretoria, 2003 ISBN: 10: 1868882063 13: 978-1868882069

Reviewed by: Senzo Ngubane
In Conflict Trends Issue 2 of 2003

One of the challenges facing most developing states is that of huge population movements within and between states. Such population movements are a result of a number of factors which, for a very long time have been summarised into two famous concepts, the ‘push’ and the ‘pull’ factors. The movement of people within and between states has been one of the key manifestations of a variety of hardships and challenges that are faced by individuals and states in Africa alike. The fact that, among other things, specific countries and region on the continent of Africa have experienced one conflict after another has contributed to instability within the continent. Such instability is reflected by the huge numbers of people moving across borders into other countries as a way of seeking sanctuary, peace and an attempt to re-build their lives. Such movement of people across borders has also been a cause of serious security challenges for both the countries from which these people originate as well as those in which they seek sanctuary.

Adekeye Adebajo And Chandra Lekha Sriram (Eds.) Published by: Frank Cass Publishers, London, 2001 ISBN: 10: 0714650943 13: 978-0714650944

Reviewed by: Hussein Solomon
In Conflict Trends Issue 4 of 2002

The scourge of armed conflicts has been the bane of humanity from time immemorial. In recent years, however, the intensity and scope of these conflicts have increased exponentially. Part of the reason for this lies in the ending of the Cold War – freed from the confines of global bipolarity, armed conflicts have moved beyond the ideological realm. They now include the spheres of ethnocentric nationalism, religious fundamentalism, border wars and narco-trafficking. This has made it harder for academics to analyse conflicts, and more difficult for policy-makers to resolve them. Other reasons for the preponderance of armed conflict include the availability of sophisticated arms and the fragility of state structures.