The United Nations’ presence in Sierra Leone has made that country a subject of international attention to an unprecedented degree. Once identified as a source of ‘the New Barbarism’, it has also become a proving ground for Western interventions in the war against terrorism.

The conventional diplomatic approach to Sierra Leone’s civil war is that it has been a contest between two clearly defined sides. Keen demonstrates this is not the case: the various armed groups were fractured throughout the 1990s, often colluded with one another, and had little interest in bringing the war to an end. This book not only represents a new and innovative approach to the study of war and Third World development and politics generally.

DAVID KEEN is Professor of Complex Emergencies at the Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics

North America: Palgrave