Killing the Dream: The Political and Human Economy of War in Sub-Saharan Africa

Militarisation, the arms trade, military government and the course of wars in sub-Saharan Africa have been described and analysed. With few exceptions the political and human economic costs of war have not. This is so despite the fact that these costs have exceeded those of drought and are clearly a major (and negative) contextual fact even in respect to non-militarised and pacifically inclined states like Tanzania. They dominate the human and economic context of Mozambique and Angola in particular, and to a slightly lesser degree of Southern Africa more generally. This paper explores the types of wars and of costs with a section devoted to cost estimation for Tanzania.