Beyond the Signed Accord: A Critical Review of 'The Unfinished Business of Peace: Power, Patronage, and Violence in South Sudan'

This review critically assesses a pivotal new monograph analysing the persistent failure of peace agreements in South Sudan. It evaluates the book's central thesis that a political economy of violence, rooted in a militarised patronage system, fundamentally undermines formal peace architecture. The analysis scrutinises the author's use of ethnographic data and elite interviews to deconstruct the cyclical relationship between resource predation, militia formation, and political fragmentation. The review concludes by situating the work within contemporary African peace studies, considering its implications for rethinking intervention models and the very ontology of 'peace' in neopatrimonial states.