Ten years after the Ivorian Civil War (2002–2011): Reassessment of the conflict

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article seeks to provide an update on the scholarship that has emerged concerning the civil war in Cote d’Ivoire (2002-2011) in the post-conflict decade, and to assess it vis-a-vis subsequent developments in national Ivorian politics. The literature is analysed and categorised, including both traditional and modern approaches, with the principal objective of determining key views on the conflict that have been re-examined in the last 10 years, revealing how our knowledge of that conflict has been clarified in light of post-conflict political developments. The author reviews and explores conflict emergence explanations centred on ethnicity, institutional viability, economic dependency and foreign interference – the latter challenged by the latest analysis of trans-border regional supply lines and domestic civil–military patronage networks. Overall the article attempts to enhance existing assessments of the Ivorian civil war in terms of causes, its course and its aftermath.