Mats Utas

The West Side Boys : military navigation in the Sierra Leone civil war*

The West Side Boys were one of several military actors in the Sierra Leonean civil War (1991-2002). A splinter group of the army, the WSB emerged as a key player In 1999-2000. In most Western media ...

Governance through brokerage: informal governance in post-civil war societies

Abstract There is currently a lack of knowledge about how elites rule post-civil war societies without strong state institutions. This paper argues that elites oftentimes overcome such institutional deficiencies by engaging in governance through brokerage. According to this perspective, elites outsource central state functions to influential broker figures. This is particularly true when dealing with war-affected groups that possess much violent agency. By functioning as social membranes, brokers can help elites and war-affected groups to redefine a new social contract. Liberia is employed as an example to illustrate the paper’s central arguments.

Ellis Stephen. The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War . 2nd edition. New York: New York University Press, 2007. xxxiii + 350 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Annexes. Bibliography. Index.

Stephen Ellis. The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. 2nd edition. New York: New York University Press, 2007. xxxiii + 350 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Annexes. Bibliography. Index.

24.00. Paper.

24.00. Paper.

Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War by C. Ryan London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Pp. 320. £59.50 (hbk).

Book review of: Christine Ryan, Children of war: child soldiers as victims and participants in the Sudan civil war

Ramon Sarró, The politics of religious change on the Upper Guinea Coast: iconoclasm done and undone

Ramon Sarro, The politics of religious change on the Upper Guinea Coast: iconoclasm done and undone