1960s–2000s: (Expanding Military Horizons — Postcolonial War Largely Internal with Rare Inter-State Conflict, Ethiopia-Somalia Wars of 1963–1964 and 1977–197…

1960s–2000s: (Expanding Military Horizons — Postcolonial War Largely Internal with Rare Inter-State Conflict, Ethiopia-Somalia Wars of 1963–1964 and 1977–1978, Tanzania’s 1979 Invasion of Uganda Overthrowing Amin, Angola and Congo as Inter-African Free-for-Alls in the 1990s, the 1998–2000 Ethiopian-Eritrean War as the Largest in the World at That Time, West African Peacekeeping Forces, the African Union’s Peace and Security Committee, and Proxy War Proliferating as Regional Actors Support Insurgencies in Neighboring Territories): War in postcolonial Africa has largely been internal, with inter-state conflict relatively rare — among the largest were the Ethiopia-Somalia wars over the Ogaden in 1963–1964 and 1977–1978, while in 1979 a Tanzanian army invaded Uganda and overthrew Amin. Since the end of the Cold War, however, foreign military adventurism has increased, raising the question of whether war in Africa may once more become an extension of national policy as it was in the nineteenth century. Angola and Congo became inter-African free-for-alls during the 1990s, involving several regional powers violently protecting their interests and seeking access to mineral wealth. The Ethiopian-Eritrean war between 1998 and 2000 was the largest conventional conflict in the world at that time, involving mass mobilization and trench warfare, fought over borders, identity, and regional hegemony. West African peacekeeping troops in Sierra Leone and the deployment of African Union soldiers in volatile areas represented new phenomena — peacekeeping has become big business in political terms. The AU’s Peace and Security Committee represents a more vigorous culture of interventionism than the old OAU. Yet proxy war proliferates as regional actors support armed insurgencies inside neighboring territory — Rwandans and Ugandans in Congo, Chadians and Eritreans in Darfur, Eritreans in Somalia. The historically close relationship between military and political establishments manifests itself in new ways as armies become instruments of foreign policy as much as internal control.