Chapter 5 explores the collapse of the EPRDF-PFDJ and NRM-RPF relationships between 1998 and 2001, until that point the main fulcrum of regional security policy for all four governing elites. The chapter explains how longstanding tensions within both pairings rose violently to the surface during this period. At the heart of both disagreements were feelings of superiority and inferiority dating back to affinities established during the struggle era and deep-seated militarism within each movement. These conflicts were, however, catalysed by changes in all four movements’ regional position in the post-liberation era. The intensely personal nature of EPRDF-PFDJ and NRM-RPF elite relations prior to this point, it is argued, rendered the subsequent violence and inter-state antagonism all the more acute and damaging, and the chapter underlines the significant regional repositioning the clashes forced all four states to undergo, and the unlikely regional alliances that this led to.

This chapter introduces the purpose and core arguments of the book, which focuses on exposing, examining and underlining the acute challenges faced by East African post-liberation movements seeking to re-structure and transform regional politics. The analysis that follows argues for the importance of common ideological, ideational and aspirational frameworks around pan-Africanism and liberation across the four post-liberation elites in their negotiation of a place in the region. The conceptual framework developed nonetheless also underlines how far these movements needed to accommodate a range of competing forces and pressures in the years following their victories, reformist ambitions often sitting uncomfortably alongside the practicalities of regional diplomacy and, increasingly, regime maintenance and intra-movement politics. The chapter also emphasises the importance of understanding these post-liberation elites as social, as well as ideological and pragmatic, actors.

The book concludes by reflecting more broadly on the extent and character of the domestic and regional transformation delivered by the four post-liberation regimes since 1986. It outlines the significant and enduring impact that all four have had on the political fabric of East Africa, and the gradual securitisation of regional affairs and fora that their regional engagements have brought about. It also examines the re-calibration of regime structures and aspirations in the aftermath of regional conflict and internal splits and considers the longer-term durability of post-liberation governance in East Africa, and beyond.