Advance praise: 'War, coups, and ethnicity form a deadly triangle, and in this study, Philip Roessler probes their origins and interrelations. In so doing he teaches us not only about Africa but about politics throughout much of the developing world. A significant contribution.' Robert H. Bates, Harvard University
Advance praise: 'Roessler has written a path-breaking contribution to political science in Africa, ably combining study of the nature of the post-colonial state and of political agency by contending elites. This book is a rich account, based on multiple methods, that superbly fuses the analysis of civil wars and coups d'état into a single cogent account, that places struggles for state power where they belong - right at the center of the explanation for armed conflict and contentious politics.' Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts
Advance praise: 'Scholars have long wondered why leaders of fragile states would exclude representatives of minority groups from the centers of power if they could mobilize their co-ethnics in rebellion. Philip Roessler's remarkable book is the first to provide a convincing answer. It is deeply engaged in field observations from Sudan, compelling in theoretical simplicity, and committed to generality through statistical tests. In a trade-off between a coup d'état from within the palace and a civil war coming from a far periphery, presidents prefer the latter and thereby risk the rebellion initiated by violence entrepreneurs mobilizing the excluded minority.' David D. Laitin, Stanford University
Advance praise: 'This is the best book on civil war I have read in quite a while. Drawing on first-rate, relatively traditional 'shoe leather' fieldwork, Roessler makes a genuine theoretical breakthrough in how to understand civil war onset in many developing countries.' James D. Fearon, Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University