The impact of the cold war on the Sudanese civil war, 1956- 1989

Abstract

This research is a historical analysis of the relationship between the Cold War and the Sudanese civil war for the period 1956-1989. The study seeks to demonstrate that the external events did affect the nature of the Sudanese civil war. Research shows that beginning from 1956, when Sudan got its independence, up to 1989, when the Berlin Wall collapsed, internal developments in Sudan were, at times though not always, shaped by external events. The study argues that the nature of these external events and their impact on the civil war have to be understood from a Cold War perspective. Thus, even though there were other external events that affected the civil war, such as the Arab- Israeli conflict, it was the Cold War that formed the overarching structure through which these other developments have to be understood. Consequently, the demise of the Cold War, which led to a structural change in the international system and made the USA the sole Superpower, also affected the nature of the war. Research shows that issues such as human rights, humanitarian interventions and the legitimacy of ethnic grievances, long suppressed under the rubric of Cold War politics, now took centre stage. And in so doing, they impacted on the Sudanese civil war and affected its nature.