Most international attention devoted to Sudan has focused on the nationwide elections and the 2011 referendum on the status of southern Sudan. Yet, there are other aspects of the north-south dynamic deserving of discussion and strategic thinking that don't receive their due. In a new Peace Brief, USIP's Jon Temin examines six important issues and questions that require more consideration as the decisive events in Sudan’s political history approach.
Overview
Over the past few months, much of the international attention devoted to Sudan has focused on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), if and when nationwide elections will happen and the 2011 referendum on the status of southern Sudan. Yet, there are other aspects of the north-south dynamic deserving of discussion and strategic thinking that don’t receive their due. In a new Peace Brief, USIP's Jon Temin examines six important issues and questions that require more consideration as the decisive events in Sudan’s political history approach. In sum, those six areas include popular consultation, southerners living in the north and northerners living in the south, the likelihood - and impact - of having a presidential candidate from the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, decentralization in the south, what the north could look like after the referendum, and southern civilian disarmament. Temin concludes that more discussion of these often overlooked issues could help prevent further violence between the north and south.
About the Author
This USIPeace Briefing was written by Jon Temin, a program officer in the Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations at the United States Institute of Peace.