Putting the State Back Together

PUTTING THE STATE BACK TOGETHER /. William Zartman I? the world after the Cold War, not only has the bipolar system ofworld order dissolved, but in many places the state itselfhas collapsed.1 Nowhere are there more examples than in Africa. Contemporary African history beganinstate collapse, inthe famous events associatedwiththe withdrawal ofcolonial rule in Congo (now Zaire)2, but it is more remarkable that Congo was an isolated case in an otherwise successful transfer of authority from colonial to independent government throughout the continent. Against widespread predictions, so surprisingly that it had to be explained, the African state persisted.3 It overrode lustier proclamations of continental 1.This article is based on the proceedings ofthe thirteenth annual African Country Day Program of the SAIS African Studies Program, held on 16-17 April 1993. The author is particularly grateful for the participation and ideas ofthose who presented papers: Hussein Adam, Francis Deng, Leonid Fituni, Ibrahim Gambari, Edmond Keller, Gilbert Khadiagala, Carol Lancaster, Azzedine Layachi, Winsome Leslie, Martin Lowenkopf, Njuguna Ng"ethe, Donald Rothchild, Marina Ottoway, Barry Schutz, Sipho Shezi, Herbert Weiss, and William Foltz. The resulting book, I. William Zartman, editor, Reconstructing the State in Africa, will be published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in early 1994. 2.See Colin Legum, Congo Disaster (Baltimore: Penguin, 1961); Catherine Hoskins, The Congo Since Independence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965); Madeleine KaIb, The Congo Cables (New York: Macmillan, 1982); David Gibbs, The Political Economy ofThird World Intervention: Money, Mines and US Policy in the Congo Crisis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), among others. 3.Robert Jackson and Carl Rosberg, "Why Africa's Weak States Persist," XXXV, World Politics 1:1-24 (October 1982). I. WilliamZartman is theJacob Blaustem Professor ofInternational Organizations and Conflict Resolution, and Director of African Studies at SAIS. 49 50 SAIS REVIEW and regional unity, formed a dominant bloc in the UN and other world fora, andimposed itselfon its citizens' lives. Buthere and there, itcollapsed. State collapse is a deeper phenomenon than mere rebellion, coup or riot. It refers to a situation where the structure, authority or legitimate power, law and political order has fallen apart and must be reconstituted. On the other hand, it is not necessarily anarchy. Indeed, one hypothesis to be pursued is that when the state collapses, order and power or the ability to rule, but not legitimacy or the right to rule, devolve to local groups and are up for grabs. But whether order becomes that of local contests or disappear entirely, the state itselfas a legitimate, functioning order is gone. What separates the phenomenon from conflicts and changes that do not destroy the state? What are effective remedies—how can collapsed states be put back together? What are preemptive measures appropriate to meet the causes—how can state collapse be recognized from a distance and prevented? Causes ofCollapse Why do states collapse? Because they can no longer perform the functions requiredforthemtopass as states. A state isthe authoritativepolitical institution that is sovereign over a recognized territory.4 This definition focuses on three elements: • The state as the sovereign authority and the accepted focus ofidentity and the arena of politics. • The state as an institution and therefore a tangible organization of decision-making and an intangible symbol of identity. • The state as a populated territory. Because these many functions are so intertwined, it becomes difficult to analyze them separately and a weakening of one function drags down others with it. It also becomes difficult to reestablish an absolute threshold of collapse. In Somalia, discussed below, there was an absolute absence of government for several years, as successor factions were unable to impose themselves; in Chad and Uganda an interregnum was present but shorter. In Liberia there was notno government but two, as inMozambique, Angola, 4. Adeed Dawisha and I. William Zartman, Beyond Coercion,- TheDurability oftheArab State (London: Croom Helm, 1988), ? 7. PUTTING THE STATE BACK TOGETHER 5 1 Sudan, Congo, and Zaire. In Ghana, Sudan, Algeria, Angola, and Mozambique , collapse was less total than in other cases, yet these cases shared enough characteristics to be enlightening. A deeper version ofthe same question would be, did the state fall apart because it was the wrong institution, not an...