War Making and State Making in Central Africa

Continued conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted, not from the "failed-state syndrome," but from the continuing struggle to establish viable states on the ruins of repressive colonial states. Starting with Tilly's account of the process of statemaking in Europe, I argue that while control over resources and the means of violence is a crucially motivating factor, the largely forgotten questions of membership in political communities are at the core of the conflict.