A Socialist Peace? : Explaining the Absence of War in an African Country / Mike McGovern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGovern, Mike, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Guinea.

Touré.

civil war.

coercion.

ethnicity.

paradox.

peace.

socialism.

solidarity.

stability.

Guinea--Politics and government--1958-1984.

Local Subjects:

Guinea.

Touré.

civil war.

coercion.

ethnicity.

paradox.

peace.

socialism.

solidarity.

stability.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

For the last twenty years, the West African nation of Guinea has exhibited all of the conditions that have led to civil wars in other countries, and Guineans themselves regularly talk about the inevitability of war. Yet the country has narrowly avoided conflict again and again. In A Socialist Peace?, Mike McGovern asks how this is possible, how a nation could beat the odds and evade civil war. Guinea is rich in resources, but its people are some of the poorest in the world. Its political situation is polarized by fiercely competitive ethnic groups. Weapons flow freely through its lands and across its borders. And, finally, it is still recovering from the oppressive regime of Sékou Touré. McGovern argues that while Touré's reign was hardly peaceful, it was successful-often through highly coercive and violent measures-at establishing a set of durable national dispositions, which have kept the nation at peace. Exploring the ambivalences of contemporary Guineans toward the afterlife of Touré's reign as well as their abiding sense of socialist solidarity, McGovern sketches the paradoxes that undergird political stability.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures and Table

Acknowledgments

Glossary

Timeline

One. Explaining the Absence of War

Part One. Resentment

Two. "Those Who Eat Monkey Will Never Rule over Us"

Three. Articulating Betrayal

Part Two. War Averted?

Four. An Exceptional Case: The Killings in Nuvanuita

Part Three. Afterlives

Interlude: "I'm not putting my life on the line . . ."

Five. The Rhetoric of Counterinsurgency

Six. The Symbolic Death of Sékou Touré

Seven. The Cinquantenaire and the Dadis Show

Eight. Conclusion

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 22. Okt 2019)

ISBN:

9780226453606

022645360X

OCLC:

987910767