The Dynamic of State Failure and Violence (DSFV) is a Research Council of Norway-funded four-year multi-disciplinary comparative research project to study the nexus of state-society-violence in the contemporary history of north east Africa. A few large-scale conflicts in this volatile region have overshadowed a myriad of smaller cases of state violence, local insurgencies and everyday insecurity. The DSFV-project collects original data to test new approaches to clarify and explain the dynamic impact of this broader violence on governance and politics in this region. As Africa’s youngest state with a particularly bloody and largely unrecorded history, the project devotes particular attention to the analysis of the contemporary history of South Sudan.
The project explores four interlinked themes:
POLICY IMPACT
The DSFV-project is aimed at helping the international community and especially Norwegian actors (politicians, aid agencies, diplomats and global media) to obtain a more accurate perspective of the political, social, gender, and environmental situation north east Africa and Third World countries as such. The project eventually aim for making international and local actions in this region and especially in South Sudan more effective and appropriate to the needs on the ground.
NEWS
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Durham University Conference 8-11 May
8-11 May the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in collaboration with the Department of History and the Global Security Institute of the Durham University organised a successful conference in Durham. More than 30 scholars gathered with the aim of exploring how, and to what degree, political violence shaped emerging independent states in northeast Africa in the 'formative' period between the 1950s and 1980.
Journal of Eastern African Studies, Special Issue: Politics and violence in eastern Africa: the struggles of emerging states, c.1940-1990
New special issue co-edited by Øystein H. Rolandsen, featuring 11 articles on violence and politics in eastern Africa from 1940-1990. For abstracts and links to the complete issue, click the link below.
PROJECT OUTPUT
The DSFV project will produce a broad range of deliverables – from non-academic seminars to academic monographs. Since early 2012, Dynamic of Violence and State Failure project forums have included:
RESEARCH NETWORK
This project consists of an international multi-disciplinary network of researchers managed by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
Core members of the network:
Project participants:
Abstract:
Over the 50 years between 1940 and 1990, the countries of eastern Africa were embroiled in a range of debilitating and destructive conflicts, starting with the wars of independence, but then incorporating rebellion, secession and local insurrection as the Cold War replaced colonialism. The articles gathered here illustrate how significant, widespread and dramatic this violence was. In these years, violence was used as a principal instrument in the creation and consolidation of the authority of the state, and it was also regularly and readily utilised by those who wished to challenge state authority through insurrection and secession. Why was it that eastern Africa should have experienced such extensive and intensive violence in the 50 years before 1990? Was this resort to violence a consequence of imperial rule, the legacy of oppressive colonial domination under a coercive and non-representative state system? Did essential contingencies such as the Cold War provoke and promote the use of violence? Or was it a choice made by Africans themselves and their leaders, a product of their own agency? This article focuses on these turbulent decades, exploring the principal conflicts in six key countries – Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Tanzania.
The PRIO projects The Dynamics of State Failure and Violence and Conflict Trends have launched a blog, Monitoring South Sudan, with updates and analysis of the current situation in South Sudan.
Enlightening papers enhancing debate were presented over four days at the conference “Struggles over emerging states in Africa: The impact of political governance violence on governance and society in North-East Africa, 1950-1980” in Durham in May. The papers and their main findings will be published in the forthcoming year, but here is a taste of some of the issues raised during the conference and master class.
8-11 May the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in collaboration with the Department of History and the Global Security Institute of the University of Durham organised a successful conference in Durham (UK). More than 30 scholars gathered with the aim of exploring how, and to what degree, political violence shaped emerging independent states in northeast Africa in the ‘formative’ period between the 1950s and 1980.
Journal Article in The International History Review
Journal Article in African Affairs (Virtual Issue: Making Sense of South Sudan)
Popular Article in Mats Utas
Book Chapter in Fredsmegling i teori og praksis
Conference Paper
Monograph
Journal Article in BEHEMOTH a Journal on Civilisation
Journal Article in African Affairs
Journal Article in International Affairs
Journal Article in The American Historical Review
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in International Area Studies Review
Journal Article in International Journal of African Historical Studies
Edited Volume
Journal Article in The International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal Article in International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal Article in The International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal Article in International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal Article in International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Eastern African Studies
Popular Article in Open Democracy
Popular Article in Dagsavisen
Journal Article in Conflict Trends