The Large Small War in Angola

The Angolan conflict is no small war according to most criteria: lasting nearly 35 years, with a death toll exceeding half a million, it has involved the troops of four countries and the intervention of three superpowers. Four attempts have been made to negotiate an end to the conflict, but they failed and in fact led to an even bloodier and more brutal phase of the protracted conflict. This article will first define the intrastate nature and causes of the conflict, examining the mediation processes at Gbadolite, Zaire, and Bicesse, Portugal. Then the authors identify how, due to a lack of requitement and a lack of accommodations for all parties after elections, further escalation remained a possibility even after an agreement was signed. The third section analyzes how these attempts failed in terms of both construct and implementation; it then discusses how these failures have led to a direct reexamination of the conflict and redefinition of a mutually satisfactory and tenable resolution in the ongoing mediation process in Lusaka, Zambia.