Beyond the Revitalised Agreement: A Critical Perspective on the Political Economy of Stalemate in South Sudan

This perspective piece argues that the persistent fragility of South Sudan's peace process stems from a fundamental misalignment between the formal architecture of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and the entrenched political economy of the state. It contends that elite competition over resource rents and the militarisation of governance have created a self-perpetuating system of conflict, rendering technical implementation timelines largely ineffective. The analysis foregrounds the instrumentalisation of violence, the weakness of transitional justice mechanisms, and the regional dynamics that sustain patronage networks. The conclusion posits that sustainable peace requires a recalibration of international engagement to address these underlying political-economic structures, rather than solely monitoring compliance with a stalled agreement.