The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence And The Failure Of International Peacebuilding: 115 (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) Paperback – 5 Aug. 2010

Un ouvrage très instructif et très intéressant sur un conflit parfois oublié et des problématiques et pistes de réflexions pertinentes et nouvelles. Un argumentaire précis et bien sourcé ! J'enlève une étoile car le livreur TNT n'a pas livré le colis en point relais comme il était prévu et en plus le colis est arrivé ouvert, déchiré et le livre un peu abîmé.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a huge country--the third largest by area in Africa--with almost unimaginable mineral wealth, an intelligent and hard working population and productive farmland with several growing seasons per year. Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the DRC/Zaire for 32 years in a brutal kleptocracy which kept the Congo an impoverished giant. While there had been revolts against his rule over the years it was not until the mid-1990s, following the genocide in neighboring Rwanda that warfare became a permanent part of the DRC especially in the provinces of North and South Kivu which are just across the border from Rwanda and its restive neighbor, Burundi. Since 1997 the United Nations has had its largest and most expensive peacekeeping deployment in the eastern Congo. There have been well funded and well meaning attempts at nation building. Warfare continues almost unabated. Refugees and internally displaced people stuck in huge camps unable or afraid to return to their homelands number in the millions. Clearly things aren't working and "The Trouble with the Congo" goes a long way in telling why.Severine Autesserre's insights are amazing, particularly her discussion of how the peacebuilding community almost universally considered people in the Eastern DRC to be savages who are inherently murderous. This, by the way, is not a white or even western view of the Congolese. South Africans and many from neighboring countries felt that extensive and constant violence was the norm in the Congo. Another is how UN representatives convinced themselves that pitched battles between large groups of armed men in an area covered by a truce was still part of a post-conflict world and not even a violation of the truce.The most striking aspect of the book is her low key scholarly approach--although I realize that is both necessary and appropriate in academic work, I keep expecting to get to the section where she starts ripping into those people who were so responsible for "The Trouble with the Congo".Autesserre's very temperate perhaps even restrained presentation makes her conclusions all the more powerful. And her immersion in and mastery of the sources--it seems she has read everything and interviewed everyone--means her method is rock solid, or so it seems to this non-academic. Spending a couple of years in the DRC, sometimes as a humanitarian worker--her first trip to the area was for the Spanish chapter of Doctors without Borders--and sometimes as a researcher has given her access to the depth and breadth of contacts necessary to understand the situation on the ground. She established her intellectual framework through deep reading of both theoretical and journalistic accounts of how the peacebuilding process has failed and succeeded in Africa and elsewhere.The solutions toward which her work point at first seem so obvious as to not need saying: a combination of a top down approach that deals with national and regional issues combined with a bottom up approach that deals with local issues would work much better than doing only one or the other. But because that integrated plan of attack hasn't been tried in the Eastern Congo the war that is officially not a war continues.Autesserre's prose is both rigorous and technical enough so that the reader knows exactly what she means but also clear and accessible to the non-specialist--like me. I just beginning to learn a bit about the Congo and the African Great Lakes region and "The Trouble with the Congo" has been invaluable. I figure that reading about 20 books on such a huge subject will be a good start and I only with they could all be as good as this one.

Severine Autesserre argues that violence in the Congo continues because of an international peacebuilding culture that prioritizes a macro-level approach of national stability in order to achieve peace, while disregarding the complex dynamics of local Congolese actors, struggles for land, a lack of economic opportunity, and ethnic tensions. She concludes that the Congo can achieve stability through a consideration of grassroots peacebuilding efforts.Where Autesserre succeeds is in her ability to put the complexities of the local dynamics and ethnic conflicts of the Congo and its relationship to Rwanda, coupled with the pressures of outside western powers, and the efforts of UN peacekeeping humanitarian missions in an easy to follow manner. She breaks down each aspect of the problem and fleshes it out, never letting you lose sight of the other factors that influence and are simultaneously influenced by each other. Some of the most profound moments in the book come from her interviews with top UN officials who speak directly contrary to the themes of her book, and spouting comments of Congolese innate barbarity that seem out of place coming from the mouths of peacebuilding agents.Autesserre leaves the reader with what she calls policy recommendations, but I think would be more aptly termed strategic recommendations. She does not suggest broad programs or step-by-step reforms, which would be contrary to her criticism of a broad-based agenda that can be replicated in all developing areas. She instead recommends international peacebuilding organizations to completely reevaluate their strategy of nationalized reforms, and alternately consider the role that local leaders and conflicts have in persisting instability. While some may see this as a deficiency in her work, I encourage naysayers to reflect on the failure of broad-based approaches attempting to solve the complex roots of intervened states. And while some programs may have had success in a region, that cannot be a guaranteed blueprint for peace in others. Autesserre understands this constraint, and instead recommends a change in the dominant peacebuilding thinking in order for specialists to conceive of appropriate tactics in the region they are attempting to assist.Autesserre's writing is devoid of the usual academic jargon, and instead utilizes simplistic language to articulate the intricate relationship between local and state actors, opposition and nationalist groups, and regional divides that have culminated in the Congo's instability. However, this writing style can be quite dry, and she has a tendency to hit you over the head with her explanations, repeating herself often. Nevertheless, the insight she provides on the faults of the MONUC and other peacekeeping missions in the Congo is too valuable to dismiss. Besides, with the prevailing misconceptions of the roots of the Congo's violence still in question after decades of studies, it is understandable why Autesserre takes such a repetitive approach to the book.

Séverine Autesserre's 'The Trouble with the Congo' is a brilliant book, it describes in detail the plan the UN used in the DRC and why she believes it failed, her arguments are strongly supported. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to gain insight into the ongoing conflict in the DRC.