The Politics and Political Economy of Violent Conflicts in Post-war Mozambique

Abstract

The outbreak of the insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province in 2017 and RENAMO’s return to violence in 2013 reveal that nearly three decades after the end of the civil war and the implementation of post-war peacebuilding often regarded as a success story, new and old violent conflicts in Mozambique persist. This chapter examines the political and political economy dynamics that fuel these violent conflicts in post-war Mozambique, considering the increasingly globalized world. The chapter argues that, in Mozambique, the expectation that democratization would result in inclusive politics and a free-market economy would produce national prosperity, which together would sustain a lasting peace, did not materialize. Instead, democratization backslid producing and reproducing forms of political exclusion while the economic model implemented did not address or even exacerbated socio-economic problems such as poverty and inequalities. Moreover, political exclusion, poverty, and inequalities are, ultimately, a breeding ground for the occurrence and recurrence of violent conflicts in the country.