Suchergebnisse

The atrocities of civil wars present us with many difficult questions. How do seemingly ordinary individuals come to commit such extraordinary acts of cruelty, often against unarmed civilians? Can we ever truly understand such acts of "evil"? Based on a wealth of original interviews with perpetrators of violence in Sierra Leone's civil war, this book provides a detailed response. Moving beyond the rigid boundaries of political science, the author engages with sociology, psychology and social psychology, to provide a comprehensive picture of the complex individual motives behind seemingly senseless violence in war.

Within two decades, Sierra Leone's 'cliques' have transformed from peripheral social clubs to warring Crips, Bloods, and Black street gangs at the heart of criminal and political violence. Nevertheless, they remain severely under-studied, with scholarship on Sierra Leonean youth marginality heavily focused on ex-combatants. Drawing on extended fieldwork with Freetown's cliques as they played the 'game' – the daily hustle to survive and resist the 'system' – this article offers two main contributions. First, it addresses the knowledge gap by charting the origins, evolution, and contemporary organisation of these new urban players. Second, it argues that although this history reveals continuity in perennial forms of youth marginalisation, it also shows that the game itself has changed. Cycles of escalating violence and growth are hardwired into this new game. Exacerbated by a political system that sustains and exploits them, cliques present a far greater challenge to everyday peace than has hitherto been recognised.

This case study is one of a series commissioned to support the Stabilisation Unit's (SU's) development of an evidence base relating to elite bargains and political deals. The project explores how national and international interventions have and have not been effective in fostering and sustaining political deals and elite bargains; and whether or not these political deals and elite bargains have helped reduce violence, increased local, regional and national stability and contributed to the strengthening of the relevant political settlement. Drawing on the case studies, the SU has developed a series of summary papers that bring together the project's key findings and will underpin the revision of the existing 'UK Approach to Stabilisation' (2014) paper. The project also contributes to the SU's growing engagement and expertise in this area and provides a comprehensive analytical resource for those inside and outside government.

The Sierra Leone civil war of 1991-2002 has widely been regarded as stemming from the desperate political and socio-economic conditions that affected the country's youth. Following the end to hostilities, there has been great concern to address youth grievances as a means of consolidating peace and stability. There have been frequent warnings in UN, NGO and academic reports of the dangers of limited progress in this regard, and it has been suggested that persistent pre-war conditions are undermining ex-combatants' investment in peace and increasing risks of a return to conflict. However, since 2002 Sierra Leone has experienced relatively low levels of violence. This article seeks to make sense of this seemingly propitious outcome. Informed by interviews conducted with ex-combatants between 2008-2012, it argues that risks of a return to arms have been exaggerated. Nevertheless, economic and political conditions continue to reconnect ex-combatants with violence in the context of 'peacetime.'