Based on rich oral histories, this is an engaging study of citizenship construction and practice in Liberia, Africa's first black republic.

Ever since it was founded for freed blacks in the early 1800s, Liberia has been a country of extremes, whether comparing wealth and poverty; the lifestyles of urban elites and rural tribal communities; or corrupt national government and familial trust. This book uses Liberia’s history as the background and ongoing source of the current political and social situations, as revealed by Afrobarometer data. The study considers the ethnicity, gender, and residential location of Liberian citizens and their attitudes regarding the country’s rule of law, state authority and democratic accountability – it’s government and economic health. After presenting the history and the current data, the author makes recommendations for changing the future of this African nation. If implemented, these changes could have a profound and positive effect on the future of this country that is rated as the third-poorest in the world.

This book examines how the economic survival strategies of former fighters in Liberia can help explain the trajectories of war-to-peace transitions.

Liberia Diplomatic Handbook - Strategic Information and Developments

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. Liberia Foreign Policy and Government Guide

The shocks of the unexpected outbreak of violent internal armed conflicts in post Cold War West Africa continue to linger in policy and academic circles. While considerable attention is devoted to explaining the civil wars, there is little understanding of the delicate and unpredictable processes of reconstruction. Post-war reconstruction programmes in Africa have become, by and large, externally driven processes; and while externalisation may not be negative per se, it is important to interrogate how such intervention recognises and interacts with local dynamics, and how it manipulates and conditions the outcomes of post-conflict reconstruction agenda. Investigating the interface between power elite, the nature of post-war regimes and the pattern which post-war reconstruction takes is important both for theory and practice. This original study, by some of West Africa's leading scholars, interrogates post-war reconstruction processes in the twin West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, focusing on the effects of regime types on the nature, scope, success or failure of their post-war reconstruction efforts. Political scientists, diplomats, the international community, donor and humanitarian agencies, advocacy groups, the United Nations and its agencies, would find it an important resource in dealing with countries emerging from protracted violence and civil war.