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This thesis examines the tensions that have continued to plague Southern Sudan since the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It investigates factors that, if left unchecked, may lead to renewed conflict. Ethnic tensions have been exacerbated by two decades of war and divide-and-rule tactics, creating a fragile post-conflict environment in which ethnic-based militias continue to operate. Weakened by claims of ethnic discrimination, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement struggles to establish its legitimacy as the southern ruling party and demonstrate its ability to provide equitable power and wealth sharing. Vast oil resources have raised the stakes of conflict for all parties, including the northern ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which risks losing its share of oil revenues if the South secedes---a possible outcome of the CPA. This thesis argues that, to ensure its own survival, the NCP fuels southern divisions to undermine the implementation of the CPA.

Lasting peace in Sudan would reverberate throughout Africa, the Arab world, and globally. But signing a historic peace agreement will not guarantee successful post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan. Several critical openings must follow-with expanded roles for the Sudanese people and their international partners. Sudanese fighters from both sides will need to integrate into joint military units that defend Sudan's borders and gain capacity to deal with rogue elements. Sudanese politicians must expand the opportunities for fresh and excluded voices to participate in Sudan's governing structures (north and south, national, regional, and local) and its political processes. Benchmarks against which international assistance is measured could help guarantee this need, as would an inclusive constitutional drafting process. Sustained economic assistance and forward-learning decisions on reducing Sudan's debt burden will help move Sudan on the path to economic growth. At the same time, international pressure must be brought to bear on the Sudanese to ensure that revenue streams, particularly oil and are handled transparently and for the benefit of Sudan's people, not its leaders. Uncertainty, hatred and mistrust run deep within Sudan. Donors must focus on building connections among the Sudanese and bringing communities together around common goals. The past focus on north-south issues should give way to more inclusive programs that begin to address the political and economical marginalization that is fuelling discontent and conflict in Sudan's peripheral regions. Lasting peace will require not just changing attitudes within Sudan, but shifting outside practices to better confront the enormous challenges that will complicate reconstruction efforts. Sudan's coming peace presents an opportunity to move beyond almost forty years of intrastate war. The United State, the United Nations, African Union, and other friends of Sudan should now consolidate and capitalize on this opportunity. / Thesis (M.A. (Peace Studies and International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

This study attempts to explore the factors that contributed to the rise and fall of military regimes in the Sudan from independence in 1956 to 1989. Further, the study tries to identify the factors that led to the collapse of either or both civilian and military regimes. Most of the studies on military politics have focused their research on either military coups or, more recently, on military withdrawal from politics. This work tries to synthesize the study of military coups and military withdrawal from politics into a single theoretical framework.

Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Sudan is a country that has been affected by a history of multiple destructive civil wars. Conflicts that, in a global perspective, have proven to be as devastating as interstate wars, or on occasion even more destructive, in terms of the numbers of casualties, refugee figures and the effects on a country’s society. The conflict in Darfur, in the western region of Sudan, is a civil war that illustrates one of the direst scenarios. In around five years of warfare, more than 200,000 people have died in the conflict, and around two million Darfurians were displaced, creating what the UN calls the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” The civil war was initiated by the attacks of two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, against government installations. Although presenting insurgency characteristics, the civil war in Darfur has been commonly labelled as a “tribal” conflict of “Africans” versus “Arabs”. An explanation that seems to fail to clarify the complex circumstances belying the situation. As seen in this study, although identity factors played their role as a cause of the conflict, the ‘ethnic hatred’ justification of war doesn’t seem to be sufficient to explain the present situation. Darfur appears to be a clear example that there is no single factor that can explain such a war. In the case of Darfur, various factors seem to have interplayed in creating the necessary conditions for the eruption of violence. This study focused on two of these factors – the environmental hazards that have been affecting the region, and the government’s use of the Janjaweed militia in its counterinsurgency movement. Both, and in different ways, seem to have contributed to dividing the Darfurian society between two poles, thus worsening the circumstances in the region and helping generate the high levels of violence that characterise the Darfur conflict. Most important, in analysing the conflict of Darfur with a point of view that goes beyond the “ethnic hatred” explanation, it seems possible to identify issues, such as land ownership, that are in vital need of being addressed in order to achieve peace in 4 the region. As seen in this thesis, it seems that it is only through a broad understanding of the complex causes of the conflict that peace negotiations might have any hope of success. While those continue to be ignored, any peace agreements or prospects of finding a solution to the conflict will be unrealistic.