A mere two years after achieving
independence, South Sudan in 2013 descended into violent civil war, refuting US
government claims that the country's succession was a major foreign policy
success and would end endemic conflict. Worse was to follow when the
international community declared famine in 2017. In the first book-length study
of the South Sudan civil war, John Young draws on his close but critical
relationship with the rebel SPLM-IO leadership to reveal the true dynamics of
the conflict, and exposes how the South Sudanese state was in crisis long
before the outbreak of war.





With insider
knowledge of the histories and motivations of the rebellion's chief protagonists,
Young argues considerable responsibility for
the present state of South Sudan must be laid at the door of the US-led peace
process. Linking the role of the international community with the
country's opposition politics, South
Sudan's Civil War is an essential guide to the causes and consequences of
the violence that has engulfed one of Africa's most troubled nations.