The Evolution of the Technologies of Warfare in Guinea-Bissau's Conflict (original) (raw)

This paper addresses the evolution of the conflict in Guinea-Bissau using a model based in Kalyvas (2010) concept of technologies of warfare. We follow the conflict from it's onset as a revolutionary anti-colonial struggle since the late 70s to the actual bandit narco-state situation, going through the "traditional-civil-war-like" conflict after the fall of the Berlin wall. We find that this model, coupled with a international relations neorealist perspective, allows for a strong understanding of violence, looking at the interactions between the two different structural levels (international and state). Using the framework set by Holsti (1996), we look at Anarchy as the structural factor that defines the use of conflict (and therefore violence) to reach political objectives. The implications of that is some degree of cross-theorization between what is used to explain internal conflict and international conflict (within, between and both within and between boundaries). We want to evaluate how the change in international structure causes changes in national structure, how do they dialogue and what is the effect to what happens on the field. Our primary findings indicate that there is a strong and intertwining effect of one structure affecting each other, specially because sub-state actors in conflicts tend to see themselves as sovereign peers, and to adopt actions and strategies similar of the ones by state actors, both historically and conflict-specifically.