Useful Enemies: When Waging Wars Is More Important Than Winning Them

Conflicts in Africa and Asia have often lasted far longer than either of the world wars. Keen (Endless War?), a professor of complex emergencies at the London School of Economics’s department of international development, examines why powerful state and insurgency actors often are “more interested in reaping the economic and political benefits of a conflict (including international aid) than in bringing it to a close.” For example, in Sierra Leone, government forces and rebels alike largely financed the war, and some became rich, by trading in diamonds. Protracted fighting results in “weakening a political opposition, gaining electoral advantage; absorbing the energies of discontented groups; and sabotaging an emerging democracy.” Even after counterinsurgency efforts end, Keen shows, authoritarian governments, such as Guatemala’s in the late 1990s, perpetuate a “culture of war” by violent repression of “trade unionists, radicals, and human rights activists.” Utilizing considerable research, Keen offers numerous case studies, though these sometimes are too brief and come in rapid-fire succession, as in recaps of conflicts in Sudan, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone. He also argues, problematically, that the U.S. uses a strategy of pre-emptive wars, without discussing America’s current military reticence vis-à-vis North Korea, Syria, and Iran. Still, this book provides an important perspective on the most troubling dimensions of recent local and regional wars. Agent: Antony Harwood, Antony Harwood, Ltd. (U.K.). (July)