Liberian Civil War Research Articles

The Role of Corruption on Liberia’s Peace and Stability

This essay addresses the role of corruption in Liberia’s peace, security, and stability. This essay argues that corruption led to the Liberian Civil War and remains the present and future security risk to Liberia. It further argues that the election of the newly elected Liberian Government under H.E Joseph Nyuma Boakia, and Vice President Jeremiah Koung was timely and could help to remove this binding constraint to Liberia’s growth and development. Former President Charles Taylor left power on 11 August 2003 thereby ending the fourteen-year civil conflict in the country; however, Mr. Taylor was prosecuted and convicted for war crimes committed only in Sierra Leone rather than those in Liberia leaving the peace and stability of Liberia fragile. It is hoped that this new government will bring an end to impunity in Liberia by establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court to prosecute such crimes in the Republic of Liberia. The essay reviews the history of corruption in Liberia, the causes, and effects of a weak anti-corruption system, it discusses the challenges militating against the speedy and successful prosecution of corruption cases in Liberia. This research is important because the researcher argues that corruption was the cause of the Liberian Civil Crises. Hence, the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) was created to curb the endemic corruption in both the Liberian public and private sectors (LACC Act 2008). However, this anti-graft agency has not done much to curb the menace. Because of this, the international community, including the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), United Nations, and other bodies intervened in the Liberia Civil Crisis to help the country transition towards peace and stability. Nevertheless, corruption in Liberia persists and hampers sustainable socio-political progress and retards economic growth and development (UNCAC 2003; LACC Act 2008). Here fore, it constitutes the outstanding main current and future security risk to Liberia. Simply put, corruption is Liberia’s binding constraint to national development, which if not adequately addressed could remain a wicked problem for the state and its future generations.

Civil War and the Culture of Violence among Youths: An Analysis of the Liberia Experience

The objective of this article is to analyze the culture of violence among the Youth in Liberian society to establish recommendations that will mitigate the effects of continuous violence. Drawing from the principles of a postwar culture of violence, this study relies heavily on the scholarly discourse on the Liberian civil war to establish a case study analysis that aligns the behaviors with the event. In the absence of such a connection, the recommendations for addressing the issue of violence among the Youth are not specific to this population’s lived experiences. Therefore, this article relies on literature relating to the conditions of the civil war, causes of the culture of violence, and occurrences of violence among the Youth to direct the recommendations for mitigating these occurrences. Through the Social Learning Theory, violent behaviors are found to be a condition of lived experiences and third-party observations. The key recommendations for mitigating the violence among the Youth and reducing the potential for generational acceptance of violence include improving mental health services, providing equity in education and economic opportunities, and providing mentorships for peacekeeping behaviors.

Trauma, risk, and resilience: A qualitative study of mental health in post-conflict Liberia.

The Liberian civil wars led to widespread destruction and devastation for its individuals, communities, and economy. However, individuals' subjective trauma experiences and long-term psychological impact remain relatively understudied. This study aims to explore context-specific traumatic events and examine how risk and protective factors combine with traumas to influence trajectories of suffering and recovery over time. We conducted 43 semi-structured interviews with Liberian adults who were present during the Liberian civil wars, and we used line-by-line open coding, thematic analysis, and axial coding to analyze and contextualize the data. Eight key trauma themes emerged: Abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual), Captivity, Combat, Killings, Physical Illness, Resource Loss, Family Separation, and War Environment. The risk and protective factors that were reported as salient were: Age, Biological Sex, Socioeconomic Status, and Community Support. Further, key patterns emerged across interviews that indicated greater risk for long-term suffering: 1) exposure to multiple traumatic events, 2) certain types of traumatic events (like killing of a close family member), and 3) the combination of specific traumatic events and risk and protective factors (like older women witnessing the killing of their children). This study provides culturally relevant information on trauma, suffering, and resilience in post-conflict Liberia, with the aim of guiding the development of screening tools and targeted psychological interventions that improve well-being over time.

Ruthlessness against Women during Wars in Danai Gurira's Eclipsed

لقد تسبب انتشار الإرهاب في العالم وكذلك الحروب الأهلية والصراعات في أوائل القرن الحادي والعشرين في جميع أنحاء العالم في الكثير من الأضرار وخلفت ضحايا جسيمة. أدت الهجمات الإرهابية على النساء، مثل اختطاف بوكو حرام لأكثر من 270 تلميذة في نيجيريا وتقارير عن انتشار الاغتصاب والاعتداء الجنسي في المناطق التي مزقتها الحرب، إلى إنتاج العديد من العروض المسرحية في الولايات المتحدة التي تصور خواص الجناة وكذلك الضحايا. من العنف. كما صورت كتابات المهاجرات الأفريقيات والأفريقيات باللغة الإنجليزية للمسرح الأمريكي نساء إفريقيا في علاقة بالعنف الجنسي والمرض. الغرض الرئيسي من البحث هو توضيح التفاصيل والتحري حول مسرحية الكسوف للكاتبة داناي غوريرا من خلال منظور المساوة الجنسية بين المراة والرجل العابرة للحدود باعتبارها مجالًا حديثًا للتحقيق والذي ظهر كنظرية يمكننا من خلالها رؤية الأعمال الوحشية ضد النساء في أوقات الحرب مثل تلك التي وقعت خلال الحرب الأهلية الليبيرية في عام 2003. النساء الضعيفات في المسرحية يجدن أنفسهن عالقات في وضع تاريخي مستحيل تم لعبه بعنف على أجسادهن وكيف يتغلبن على محنتهن. إنهن لاجئات داخل بلدهم ، وتضع المسرحية الأمريكيين السود والأفارقة في نقاش حول الآثار اللاحقة للاستعمار والاستيلاء والحرب الأهلية والإبادة الجماعية.

From their own words: An explorative qualitative study on the experience of combatants disabled in the Liberian civil war,1989-2003

Aim:To explore the experience of fighters disabled during the Liberian civil war; what they did and what was done to them; and what happened after their demobilization. Methods:Six focus group discussions were organized in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, with 50 invalid veterans aged 10 to 25 at their entrance into the war and eightwomen wounded, although civilians, sampled as in convenience. In addition,sevenkey-informant interviews took place. All encounters were agreeably taped, transcribed and summarized under the items of the discussion guide. Results:Most ex-combatants joined the fighting to protect themselves and their families who were targeted by rebel fighters or joined to revenge the killing of close family members by fighters from all sides including government soldiers. Nearly all the former fighters interviewed expressed their desire to be trained in various areas of life skills. A vast majority of the ex-combatants are living from begging in the streets.Those from factions feel that government cares for former regular soldiers and discriminates those from other warring factions. The lack of housing for ex-combatants with war related infirmities is of paramount concern to them. They feel that the post-war reintegration program did not achieve its objectives. In the communities, they are stigmatized, blamed as the ones who brought suffering to their own people. The key informants are calling for establishment of trust fund for survivors of the civil war who are disabled. Recommendations: Establishment of a trust fund for survivors of the civil war who are disabled; reform of the National Bureau of Veteran Affairs to include the disabled ex-combatants of all former warring factions; erection as planned of the proposed Veterans Hospital; a national census of disabled ex-combatants and war victims.

Building Peace from the Bottom Up: The Case of Liberia

Over the last two decades, national and international peacebuilding initiatives have increasingly emphasised the need to include a wider range of actors in post-conflict and peace processes. The importance of developing women’s skills and full participation in the peacebuilding sphere has been recognised and promoted by legal norms such as the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), adopted in 2000. Even though the progress made on women’s participation in peacebuilding processes cannot be ignored, the effective implementation of policy frameworks remains limited, especially in conflict and post-conflict countries. In this context, this paper analyses the role of community-based initiatives in empowering local women in peace-making and peacebuilding processes, using the case study of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) and the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET). This article emphasizes the importance of inclusive peacemaking through a review of Liberian women’s peace activism throughout the official talks.

RETHINKING THE LIBERIAN PREDICAMENT IN ANTI-BLACK TERMS

Liberia’s protracted civil conflict was sustained for a period of fourteen years (1989–2003), killing approximately 250,000 Liberians and displacing half of the population. Liberia’s war, like other contemporary African conflicts, has been persistently represented as an example of wanton violence, political tribalism, chaos, or an amalgamation of such elements. Founded in 1822, the Colony of Liberia was annexed by the American Colonization Society to expatriate and colonize “free” negros and their descendants on the coast of West Africa. “Re-colonization,” as it was recognized by the ruling US Southern class, was rendered a compromise between the absolute abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and perpetual black servitude. Yet, repatriation was treacherously crafted by abolitionists and their pro-slavery contemporaries, alike, as a fugitive project, an opportunity for “free” blacks to experiment with emancipation and take refuge from the sociopolitical and economic conditions which amounted to what was effectively slavery by another name. The rhetorical propagation of the West African settlement as a pre-racial site – of sorts – in which stolen peoples could escape the violence of American racialism has made articulable contemporary theorizations of the Liberian civil war as a paradigmatic example of the negro’s irresponsible experimentations with freedom. The following paper offers a re-contemplation of Liberian historiographical accounts, one that attends to the racialized global orders against which this national crisis has developed and limns the impossibility of freedom in the afterlife of slavery, where anti-black terror is not only temporally unbounded but transgeographical.

Student's perceived science inquiry process skills in relation to school type and gender

Seventeen years after the end of the Liberian civil war, which is partly blamed for the waning of the standard of education, the country is still grappling with providing a competency-based science educational experience that will enhance the science inquiry process skills of its youth. In this paper we used the constructivist theoretical perspective to compare the science inquiry process skills of Grade 11 students in government and private schools. The study employed a descriptive survey design and the quantitative research method. Six high schools were selected by cluster random sampling, and a total of 360 students constituted the study sample. This study found that government school students have significantly higher perceived science inquiry process skills than their private school counterparts and that an average of 42% of private school students cannot demonstrate any skills related to experimental design, data representation, communication and presentation. Male students indicated having significantly higher science inquiry process skills compared to their female counterparts. However, a varying majority across study groups practise the science inquiry process skills occasionally.

Running for Office in the Aftermath of the Liberian Civil War: On Crisis, Continuity, and Reproduction

This article deals with the dynamics of continuity and change articulated during the presidential and representative elections in the aftermath of the Liberian civil war (1989–2003). Elections are often presented as pivotal moments, in which a violent past is left behind and an era of peace begins. Using interviews with politicians and voters, as well as observations during the 2011 and 2017 electoral campaigns, I describe how candidates reproduce local political practices in new contexts. The dichotomy between apparent continuities and radical change, as articulated during elections, is interpreted by considering the process of transitional justice, a long history of electoral violence, and the prominence of autochthony, reciprocity, and secrecy in local politics.

THE CURRENT CHALLENGES FACE BY THE LIBERIA WATER MANAGEMENT SECTOR IN IMPROVING WATER SUPPLY COVERAGE: A CASE STUDY ON THE WHITE PLAINS WATER TREATMENT PLANT IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA

Water is an essential component in the existence of man and his environments. Despite the tremendous effort made by the Liberia Government through the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation in providing efficient, safe and affordable water supply to the inhabitants of Monrovia and its environs, water supply coverage is still low to meet the demand of the growing population of its inhabitants most especially during the dry season every year. Before the Liberian Civil War in 1990, the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation supplied sufficient water for the inhabitants of Monrovia and its environs at that time the treatment Plant was in full operation and supplied 16 million gallons per day on the total population of 500, 000 people. After the 14-year Civil War the population of Monrovia and its surroundings has increased to 1,500,000 people thereby tripling the total population before the war and leading to water shortage in the city. There is no constant supply of water, operation and maintenance of the system as well as revenue generation from bills distributed to customers however, leakages within the networks are alarming because the pipes have over-lived its life span. This research scrutinizes reports, literature, studies and other important details regarding the Liberia’s Water Sector ensuring to outlines the primary causes of the challenges and constraints the management faces in delivering water to the people of Monrovia and its surroundings and also discusses the way forward ranges from technical, economic and social issues. The management has an opportunity of improving the current situation through adequate strategies for monitoring water services and water resources, making use of sustainable technologies and linking with target beneficiaries in the development of water supply systems within Monrovia and its environs and it can only be archived through proper planning and management system.

Costly Discrimination and Ethnic Conflict: The Case of the Liberian Civil Wars

Costly Discrimination and Ethnic Conflict: The Case of the Liberian Civil Wars

Peacekeeping Operations in Africa: Liberian Lessons, a Platform for Deepening Future UN Peacekeeping Engagements.

Purpose: In terms of UN peacekeeping deployments, the African region has received the most, just as it has contributed the most in terms of military personnel. The Liberian UN-ECOWAS joint peace operations are acknowledged by many as one of the most successful, globally. The study argues that experiences from these operations can enrich this global effort. Hence, the study sought to establish lessons from the operations that could guide future peacekeeping operations. 
 Methodology: The study adopted a research approach that was analytical, descriptive, legal, historical and sociological; where data was mainly gathered from secondary and tertiary sources. To this end, scholarly books, edited works, articles and periodicals (duly acknowledged in the reference list) within the study area of international peacekeeping and the Liberian Civil War, were reviewed. Policy and legal documents by the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), media stories, reports from non-governmental organizations, research reports and reports from the Liberian government in relation to the multi-functional peacekeeping operations in that country; were not left out when data was gathered for this write-up. Additionally, in terms of secondary sources, dictionaries, bibliographies, encyclopedia, databases, abstracts and indexing sources were used. 
 Findings: Main findings were that the joint operations brought lasting peace to Liberia and that lessons from those experiences have the potential of guiding future peacekeeping operations across the globe.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study which is useful for academic, policy-formulation and implementation purposes, recommends: that the UN Security Council institutes prompt, appropriate and adequately funded interventions that have clear, effective and purposeful mandates at the start of conflicts; ‘spoilers’, ‘trouble makers’ and warlords should be heavily sanctioned; and effective coordinative measures be put in place by the UN so as to regulate activities of Non-UN peacekeeping actors.

Civil War and Citizens' Demand for the State: An Empirical Test of Hobbesian Theory

AbstractHow does violence during civil war shape citizens' demand for state-provided security, especially in settings where non-state actors compete with the state for citizens' loyalties? This article draws on Hobbesian theory to argue that in post-conflict countries, citizens who were more severely victimized by wartime violence should substitute away from localized authorities and towards centralized ones, especially the state. The author tests the theory by combining two original surveys with existing media and non-governmental organization data on wartime violence in Liberia. The study shows that citizens who were more severely affected by violence during the Liberian civil war are more likely to demand state-provided security, both in absolute terms and relative to non-state alternatives. More sporadic collective violence in the post-conflict period does not reverse this substitution effect. Also consistent with Hobbesian theory, citizens who were more severely victimized are more fearful of threats to peace almost a decade later.

"The Realities of their World": Engaging Pre-service School Librarians with International Literature

As the idea of global citizenship grows stronger in a world with blurring borders, issues of social justice and international human rights should be available in the school library collection and alive in the curriculum. This paper reports findings on a study exploring the perceptions of preservice educators in using international literature to teach youth about international human rights. The 2013 Batchelder Honor title Son of a Gun (de Graaf, 2012), translated from the Dutch into English, tells the story of a young brother and sister forced to become child soldiers during the Liberian civil war of the 1990s. Study participants enrolled in a masters level course in the United States read the title and the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and then participated in group literature circles to apply the DRC to Son of a Gun and discuss teaching international human rights to youth.

“Peace in the home is peace in the nation”: redemption after the Liberian civil wars

Elma Shaw’s 2008 novel, Redemption Road: The Quest for Peace and Justice in Liberia, provides an important model for thinking through creative possibilities for individual and collective justice in Liberia after the civil wars from 1989 to 2003. This essay engages African women thinkers including Lauretta Ngcobo and Desiree Lewis to expand the frames of Judith Butler’s work on precarity and Jacques Derrida’s model of inheritance. Shaw’s complex female protagonist, Bendu Lewis is a victim and perpetrator of crimes during the war who works to find justice for her community by founding an NGO and reclaiming her lost daughter. I argue that this kind of practice comprises the foundation for an individual and collective “bodily redemption” that turns from a reliance on systemic justice to the female body as a site of individual and collective pain, agency, and healing.

R v. Reeves Taylor (Appellant). [2019] UKSC 51

The First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996), in which Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) waged an ultimately successful military campaign to depose President Samuel Doe, was characterized by widespread atrocities. During this period, Agnes Reeves Taylor, known as “The Mother of the Revolution” and at the time Charles Taylor's wife, allegedly committed multiple acts of torture in her capacity as a high-ranking member of the NPFL. After moving to the United Kingdom, Agnes Taylor was charged in 2017 with seven counts of torture and one of conspiracy to commit torture under Section 134 of the UK Criminal Justice Act 1988 (CJA), which domesticates aspects of the UN Convention Against Torture 1984 (CAT) and asserts universal jurisdiction over torture. During the prosecution, a question over a key definitional element of the crime was appealed to the UK Supreme Court (Supreme Court): whether nonstate actors could be liable under the statute, which requires that torture be carried out by a “public official or person acting in an official capacity” (para. 14). The Court gave a qualified answer in the affirmative, holding that this definition includes individuals acting for a nonstate body that exercises control over territory and carries out governmental functions in this territory. As the first apex court decision extending liability for torture to de facto authorities, the Supreme Court decision is likely to have significant jurisprudential influence well beyond the United Kingdom.

Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Under Two Military Juntas, 1983-1993: A Reflection of the Buhari and Babangida Regimes

Foreign policy is the methods and means used by a nation-State to achieve its aims and interests in its relations with other nation-States. In the conduct of foreign policy, the main objective is to protect the security of the State, improve the political, social and economic well-being of the citizenry. Therefore, the paper questioned Nigeria’s foreign policy and how it affected her external relations during the two military regimes of General Buhari, 1983-1985 and, General Babangida, 1985-1993. General Buhari’s foreign policy decision to closed Nigeria’s borders with her neighbouring West African countries strained her relationship with them. General Babangida’s cancellation of the June 12, 1993 national election results dented Nigeria’s image globally. The paper’s methodology was based on secondary sources. The paper further observed that the Buhari regime inherited the deepening economic crisis, which Nigeria was engulfed in during the civilian administration of Shehu Shagari. Therefore, in order to revamp the economy, the Buhari regime emphasized that Nigeria’s foreign policy would revolve around its national security and economic well-being of Nigerians.The Babangida’s regime foreign policy was more African-focused. The regime gave assistance to some African liberation movements for the struggle of their independence. This led to the liberation of Namibia, Mozambique from colonial rule. Equally, the Babangida regime restored peace and order in the Liberian civil war. The paper also found out that the Buhari regime conducted external relations with a retaliation reactions policy, while the Babangida regime used skillful and economic diplomacy in its foreign policy conduct. It concludes that both military regimes never had any regards to the fundamental human rights of the citizenry.

Mama, Keep Walking for Peace and Justice: Gender Violence and Liberian Mothers’ Interreligious Peace Movement

Focusing on the understudied area of women, religion, and peacebuilding, this essay offers the case study of Liberian mothers’ actions in the interreligious peace movement to address multiple forms of violence in the midst and aftermath of Liberian civil wars. This essay examines three forms of gender violence and their impact on the lives of Liberian women: (1) sexual violence, (2) forced mobilization of child soldiers, and (3) structural poverty. Afterwards, the essay explores the journey of Liberian mothers to peace and justice and analyzes the role of religion(s) in organizing and sustaining the mothers’ interreligious peace movement. Specifically, this essay highlights the concept of motherhood rooted in Pan-African religious traditions as a key moral resource to empower the mothers as peacebuilders and to foster restorative justice in their war-torn nation.

The Dilemma of Ghana-Based Liberian Refugees and the Challenges of Repatriation and Integration

Abstract In the aftermath of the Liberian civil war and the signing of the final peace agreement among the warring factions, the international community and host countries of Liberian refugees in the West African sub-region disproportionately pursued the policy of refugee repatriation to Liberia at the expense of other options such as integration and resettlement as a solution for the refugee problem. Using the Liberian refugees in the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana as a qualitative case study, this research argues that the policy of repatriation has largely failed. The research arrives at this conclusion via the use of focus-group interviews of a cross-section of remaining Liberian refugees in the Buduburam camp. The research discovered that while the refugees are discontent with their current circumstances in Ghana, they are hesitant to return home due to unfavourable homeland conditions. The combination of both unfavourable host and homeland conditions constitutes ‘intervening obstacles’ that mitigate against repatriation and thus put the Ghana-based Liberian refugees in a dilemma. The research recommends the option of integration as a viable option that should be legislated and institutionalized to attract the necessary buy-in from the remaining refugees.

West African International Studies: Approaches to Regional Security

This article covers the most significant theoretical schools in West Africa in the framework of the international relations analysis, with special focus on the regional security. Major respective theoretical approaches to the given issues are assessed based on the writings of local experts that frequently reevaluate the major articles of faith connected with neo-Realist, neo-Liberal and Marxist views. Particular attention is drawn to the examination of various interpretations of the role that belongs to supranational regional structures in West African conflict resolution using the case of the Liberian civil war. The most crucial part of the research presented is an analysis of publications issued by Adekye Adebajo and Ismail Rashid, two leading West African specialists in the field of regional security. Their appraisal of collective security mechanisms’ perspectives in the most poverty-stricken and unstable regions of the world is elaborated upon. The aim of the article is to determine the extent of uniqueness present in Adebajo and Rashid’s approaches compared to their Western and African colleagues but also to figure how West African 1990-2000’s conflicts’ analysis did have an impact on the scholars’ theoretical views and more broadly what was its contribution to the regional understanding of international relations. The research is based upon comparative and historical-genetic methods as well as case studies. The major elements composing the scholars’ analysis of successes and failures in the path of West African integration are presented along with their appraisal of the ECOWAS security component. A comparison is made between their views and those of their regional colleagues belonging to other schools of thought as well as Western theories that had the greatest impact on these authors.