The International Politics of the Congo Wars

• In Event: The Influence of Global Dynamics on Local Wars

Abstract

Today’s violent conflicts are networked and complex, trans-border and multi-dimensional. Since the 1996 invasion of Zaire by a coalition of neighboring states, the Congo has been the battleground of wars with a myriad of actors, external and domestic, connected by a complex and changing web of political, military, and commercial ties that cross borders and continents. Much of the literature about contemporary wars in Africa treats them as civil war phenomena, when they are, in fact, complex hybrid wars combining civil war, inter-state war, and cross-border insurgencies. These empirical realities reveal the artificial distinction between what constitutes civil war and inter-state conflict. We thus struggle to invent new ill-fitting concepts like ‘hybrid war,’ ‘regional conflicts,’ ‘internationalized conflicts,’ ‘spillover conflict,’ or even the ‘glocal.’ While the increasing complexity of violent conflict makes these conflicts particularly prolonged and deadly, it poses a particular challenge for those responding to conflict. As we have seen in the DRC, the international system remains ill-equipped to respond with adequate frames, analysis, and mandates across state borders. This paper argues that we need new ways to conceive of and characterize these wars with the Congo wars of the 1990s as a case study.

Author

• Tatiana Carayannis, CUNY, Graduate Center