State failure in the Congo: perceptions & realities

Theodore Trefondoes political science research on central Africa at the Free University of Brussels. President of the Brussels Centre of African Studies (VUB/ ULB), his publications on Congo/Zaire include: ‘Changing Patterns of Solidarity in Kinshasa’, Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, N° 3 2002, ‘Population et Pauvreté à Kinshasa’, Afrique Contemporaine, N° 194 (2000) and French Policy Toward Zaïre During the Giscard d'Estaing Presidency, Les Cahiers du CEDAF, Vol. 1. (1989). He is finalising an edited volume entitled Re‐inventing Order in Kinshasa. After completing his Ph.D. at Boston University, Dr Trefon has worked on European Union funded projects concerning environmental governance and is an advisor to the USAID Central African Program for the Environment. He is also visiting professor at ERAIFT (University of Kinshasa); e‐mail: ttrefon@ulb.ac.be

Saskia Van Hoyweghenis completing a PhD at the Institute for Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds on the subject of migration and the state in East‐Central Africa. She is a researcher at the Brussels Centre of African Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where she works on the question of the nation‐state in Central Africa, focusing on issues of identity, nationality, citizenship, migration, refugees & post‐conflict reconstruction. Her publications include: ‘Mobility, Territoriality and Sovereignty in post‐colonial Tanzania’, Working Paper N° 49, New Issues in Refugee Research, UNHCR, Geneva, 2001; with K Vlassenroot, ‘Ethnic Ideology and Conflict in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Culture Clash Revisited’, in R Doom & J Gorus (eds.), Politics of Identity and Economics of Conflict in the Great Lakes Region,VUBPress, Brussels, 2000; with Eltringham, ‘Power and Identity in Post‐Genocide Rwanda’, in R Doom & J Gorus (eds.), Politics of Identity and Economics of Conflict in the Great Lakes Region, VUB Press, Brussels, 2000; ‘The urgency of land and agrarian reform in Rwanda’, African Affairs, Vol. 98, N°392, 1999; e‐mail: svhoyweg@vub.ac.be

Stefaan Stnisis member of the Department of International Law of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and vice‐president of the Brussels Centre of African Studies. He obtained his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on the international law of self‐determination. His main areas of research are human rights protection, border issues and regionalisation in Africa. He has contributed chapters in books on the legal status of borders and border problems in Africa and published in various international journals including the American Journal of International Law, the Belgian Journal of International Law and the Journal of African Law. He is member of the editorial board of the Revue de Droit Africain; e‐mail: ssmis@vub.ac.be