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Still standing: neighbourhood wars and political stability in Guinea*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Alexis Arieff
Alexis Arieff*
Affiliation:
Africa analyst, Congressional Research Service, 101 Independence Ave, SE, Washington, DC 20540, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Republic of Guinea is located in a particularly turbulent region. However, while several conflicts in neighbouring countries – Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone – have spilled over Guinea's borders, the country's central government has displayed a seemingly unlikely stability. Until a bloodless coup in December 2008 brought a military junta to power, the country had had only two presidents since independence, both of whom died of natural causes while still in office. Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinea's first leader, deftly used the anti-colonial insurgency in neighbouring Guinea-Bissau to enhance his political credentials and control domestic and international opposition. The administration of the late President Lansana Conté leveraged regional warfare to solidify its command over remote provinces, increase government revenues, bolster military capacity, and improve regional diplomatic relations. This paper supports the analysis of civil wars as regional phenomena, while shedding light on mechanisms that may interact in counter-intuitive ways with the dynamics of state strength.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 331 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank Mike McGovern, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and Stathis Kalyvas, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science, both at Yale University, for their guidance and encouragement. Research for this article was made possible in part by a US Fulbright student grant. Any views expressed in this article are the author's alone, and do not represent those of the Fulbright Program or the Congressional Research Service.

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