The situations in Angola and Mozambique are very much alike. How can one define them: civil war, foreign intervention, economic breakdown, or destabilization?

There is a grain of truth in each of these definitions. Still, none of them fully reflects the developments in these countries. What we find in Angola and Mozambique is a unique crisis which has hit weak, nationally disunited countries. (By contrast, Afghans are united by a religious culture, and Nicaraguans by national sentiments.)