Africa, African, Political Science, War & Peace, National & International Security 

The multifaceted nature of the problems in the crisis area attracts many different responses ranging from the development of thousands of international troops and observers to the brave and well-motivated groups of civilians who act locally. Whether these individual organizations are international, national or local, at each level they play an important part in the overall recovery process. Acting simultaneously but not always in concerts with the response operations are the regional and international political leaders. In the best case scenario they bring the level of conflicts down, step by step, to a relative calm in which the civil and military actors can begin to restore the essential needs of a civil society.
Recording or assessing such a wide canvas of currently running events is extremely difficult.
In the context of Liberia, the crisis and the international response to it develop in stages, each with its own idiosyncratic nature, characteristics form of violence, cast of dominant personalities, and fresh bouts of extreme violence.
In peace, politicians and warlords, the author set out to records the environment of the Cotonou agreement by interviewing officials in situ while the recent past and ongoing events were still fresh in their minds. They also visited Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire to capture the Liberian politics of the first Abuja accord. The result 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 keys actors in this narrative.
If the international community is to improve its understanding of post-cold war complex emergences and of effective response to them, the lesson of this experience has a wider global significance.
 

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. - from Amzon 

CONTENTS

Part I The Liberian conflict ……………………………………………............................p. 1
1 Regional peackeeping after the Cold War…………………………..............p. 3
2 From peace to chaos: The outbreak of conflict in Liberia………….......p. 12
3 Regional intervention in Liberia…………………………………...........…........p. 28
Part II The Cotonou Agreement …………………………………………....…......….p. 39
4 The Cotonou Agreement and the inherent obstacles to its success….p. 41
5 Why Cotonou failed………………………………………………........................….p. 52
Part III The Abuja accords ……………………………………………...................…p. 75
6 Abuja I: Plans for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration.…p. 77
7 Abuja II………………………………………………………….............................……p. 90
8 Towards a settlement……………………………………......................…………..p. 102
9 Conclusion: Some lessons from the Liberian experience………….........p. 115
Postscript …………………………………………………………........................…p. 125
Appendices ………………………………………………………........................……p. 127
1 Details of the Bamako Agreement, November 1990 …………..........…p. 129
2 Details of the Banjul Agreement, December 1990 …………..........…p. 130
3 Stipulations of the Lome Accord, February 1991 ……………...……..p. 131
4 The Cotonou Agreement, July 1993………………………………..................p. 132
5 The UNOMIL Mandate, September 1993 ………………….............………p. 145
6 The Akosombo Agreement, September 1994 ………..........…………..p. 147
7 Accra Clarification of the Akosombo Agreement, December 1994....p. 156
8 Accra Acceptance and Accession Agreement, December 1994……....p. 159
9 Abuja Agreement, August 1995 ………………………………................p. 162
10 Final Communique of ECOWAS meeting on
Liberia, Abuja, August 1996 …………………………………………..........................……p. 167