BOTSWANA STOPPED A CIVIL WAR HAPPENING IN ZIMBABWE IN 2008 - STUDY REVEALS President Ian Khama’s government of Botswana successfully worked on and managed to stop civil war in Zimbabwe after the 2008 election, a scientific study argues. The paper titled “Botswana and Pivotal Deterrance in the Zimbabwe 2008 Political Crisis,” argues that had it not been for Botswana’s deliberate actions, Zimbabwe would have plunged into civil war following the 2008-9 era. The paper was researched and written by scholars at the University of Botswana: Obonye Jonas, David Mandiyanike, and Zibani Maundeni. This article seeks to explain the pivotal role that Botswana played in the light of the Zimbabwe political crisis after the 2008 election. It argues that Botswana was able to apply pivotal deterrence in Zimbabwe between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that claimed to have won the March 2008 presidential election and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU PF) that claimed to have won the June 2008 presidential re-run election in which Robert Mugabe stood alone. This article deploys the theory of ‘pivotal deterrence’ to investigate the influence that Botswana had over the MDC and ZANU PF. The enduring amity of Southern Africa was nearly disrupted in 2008, when Zimbabwe nearly slid in a civil war following the disputed elections which returned Robert Mugabe to power after his arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the presidential race citing escalating state-sponsored violence.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 10:23:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015