| ID | 191628 |
| Title Proper | Securocratic state-building: the rationales, rebuttals, and risks behind the extraordinary rise of Rwanda after the genocide |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | McDoom, Omar Shahabudin |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Both popular perspectives and theoretical characterizations of Rwanda’s remarkable trajectory following the genocide remain polarized more than a generation after the violence. The country has been hailed as a developmental state and denounced as an authoritarian ‘ethnocracy’. I introduce the concept of securocratic state-building in response to this polarization. The construct is intended to capture, first, the regime’s developmental but non-doctrinaire ambitions, synthesizing liberal and illiberal precepts; and second its prioritization of security over liberty, favouring stability over peace. I then draw on a set of interviews with key Rwandan opinion-makers drawn from across the country’s principal political and social divides to elicit the competing rationales given for each of three grand strategic choices made by the regime: why it eschewed competitive politics; why it sought to re-engineer society and efface ethnicity; and why it moved to modernize the state and the economy. The juxtaposition of these opposing opinions exposes a fundamental tension at the heart of the securocratic state-building model: the regime’s aspiration for unity is at odds with its preoccupation with security. This strategic contradiction, I argue, places a question mark over the long-term sustainability of the Rwanda model. |
| `In' analytical Note | African Affairs Vol. 121, No.485; Oct 2022: p. 535–567 |
| Journal Source | African Affairs Vol: 121 No 485 |
| Key Words | Rwanda ; Securocratic state-building |