ABSTRACT
Generalizing about recent wars and their global connections in a continent as diverse as Africa is a tricky business. The 1998-2000 Ethiopian-Eritrean border war looked like a classic interstate war, with trenches and front lines, field artillery and coordinated ground-air attacks as armies fought over the delineation of an international boundary. Most wars in Africa since 2000 have been fought across regions rather than solely within states and, thus, are fundamentally international wars. Despite a quarter of a century of domestic and international pressure for reform, by various measures state institutions remain notably weak and regimes unstable across a wide range of African countries. US and European interest in the internal politics of African states rapidly intensified after the September 11 attacks. Countries like Uganda show how regimes that control centralized networks of supporters and limit their uses of violence against critics and opponents are able to manipulate external aid designed to strengthen their domestic political positions.
