Conflict & Collusion in Sierra Leone

Book excerpt: 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 is not only a comprehensive description and novel interpretation of events in Sierra Leone, it represents a new and innovative approach to the study of war and Third World development and politics generally.