Peacekeepers, Politicians, and Warlords

When the international community responds to a massive humanitarian emergency, such as the one in Liberia, the operation that results is both complicated and ephemeral. The multifaceted nature of the problems in the crisis area attracts many different responses ranging from the deployment of thousands of international troops and observers to groups of civilians who act locally. Acting simultaneously but not always in concert with the response operations are the regional and international political leaders. In the context of Liberia, the crisis and the international response to it developed in stages, each with its own idiosyncratic nature, characteristic form of violence, cast of dominant personalities, and fresh bouts of extreme violence. Peacekeepers, Politicians, and Warlords is an original account of the entire peace process in Liberia that penetrates the roles of the peacekeepers, the warlords and the politicians who were the key actors in this narrative.

Abiodun Alao was trained at the universities of Ibadan and Ife (both in Nigeria), and at King's College London, where he obtained, respectively, a BA degree in History, an MA in International Relations, and a PhD in War Studies. He has held teaching and research positions in universities in Western and Southern Africa, as well as in London at the Department of War Studies and the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London. He is currently at the African Security Unit at the Centre for Defence Studies. His work on the Liberian peace process has concentrated on the peace agreements. John Mackinlay began his career as an army officer serving in Malaya, Brunei, Nepal, North Borneo, and Northern Ireland. His academic interest in international forces began as a staff officer in the Sinai, and in 1985, as a Defence Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, he travelled extensively through the Arab-Israeli war-zones including Beirut and South Lebanon to research his Assessment of Peacekeeping Operations at the Arab-Israeli Interface, which he completed as a PhD at King's College London in 1990. 'Funmi Olonisakin attended the University of Ife, Nigeria, where she obtained a BSc in Political Science, and King's College London, where she obtained an MA and PhD in War Studies. She is currently a MacArthur Foundation Research Associate with the Department of War Studies and a Research Associate at the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London. She has worked as a Research Associate at the University of Pretoria.