Jason K. Stearns

"The Congolese conflict has been dubbed a "forever war," a conflict that defies resolution. As of 2016, the Congo was experiencing its twentieth year of violent conflict, one of worst humanitarian calamities of our time and climbing the all-time charts. According to one study, 5.4 million people have died between 1998 and 2007 alone, largely from disease, though fighting and violence is ongoing to this day. This study aims to explain the most recent phases of the conflict, why it has lasted for so long, where diplomats and peacemakers have gone wrong in their approach to solving the violence, and how the Congo can help us understand contemporary armed conflict more broadly. Using the Congolese conflict as an illustrative case study, the author argues that three factors determine why conflicts there have persisted in some places while dwindling elsewhere: the cohesion, political culture, and constituencies of the belligerents. He finds that the more fragmented the belligerents, the more protracted the conflict becomes, and as they shift to see the conflict as an end in itself and to perceive violence as an acceptable and necessary tool of politics, the longer the conflict lasts. Finally, he develops a theory for how social constituencies shape negotiations between belligerents and the government by providing guarantees, brokering contacts, and presenting commitment problems"--

The Unending Conflict in the Congo

The War That Doesn't Say Its Name

Why violence in the Congo has continued despite decades of international intervention


Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"--a perpetual cycle of war, civil unrest, and local feuds over power and identity. Millions have died in one of the worst humanitarian calamities of our time. The War That Doesn't Say Its Name investigates the most recent phase of this conflict, asking why the peace deal of 2003--accompanied by the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world and tens of billions in international aid--has failed to stop the violence. Jason Stearns argues that the fighting has become an end in itself, carried forward in substantial part through the apathy and complicity of local and international actors.

Stearns shows that regardless of the suffering, there has emerged a narrow military bourgeoisie of commanders and politicians for whom the conflict is a source of survival, dignity, and profit. Foreign donors provide food and urgent health care for millions, preventing the Congolese state from collapsing, but this involvement has not yielded transformational change. Stearns gives a detailed historical account of this period, focusing on the main players--Congolese and Rwandan states and the main armed groups. He extrapolates from these dynamics to other conflicts across Africa and presents a theory of conflict that highlights the interests of the belligerents and the social structures from which they arise.

Exploring how violence in the Congo has become preoccupied with its own reproduction, The War That Doesn't Say Its Name sheds light on why certain military feuds persist without resolution.

Why violence in the Congo has continued despite decades of international intervention Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a “forever war”—a perpetual cycle of war, civil unrest, and local feuds over power and identity. Millions have died in one of the worst humanitarian calamities of our time. The War That Doesn’t Say Its Name investigates the most recent phase of this conflict, asking why the peace deal of 2003—accompanied by the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world and tens of billions in international aid—has failed to stop the violence. Jason Stearns argues that the fighting has become an end in itself, carried forward in substantial part through the apathy and complicity of local and international actors. Stearns shows that regardless of the suffering, there has emerged a narrow military bourgeoisie of commanders and politicians for whom the conflict is a source of survival, dignity, and profit. Foreign donors provide food and urgent health care for millions, preventing the Congolese state from collapsing, but this involvement has not yielded transformational change. Stearns gives a detailed historical account of this period, focusing on the main players—Congolese and Rwandan states and the main armed groups. He extrapolates from these dynamics to other conflicts across Africa and presents a theory of conflict that highlights the interests of the belligerents and the social structures from which they arise. Exploring how violence in the Congo has become preoccupied with its own reproduction, The War That Doesn't Say Its Name sheds light on why certain military feuds persist without resolution.

Jason K. Stearns

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