Warlord-turned-politician Charles Taylor served as President of Liberia from 1997 until his resignation in 2003. While on trial for war crimes in the Hague, the court heard of Taylor forcing his soldiers to practice cannibalism on their enemies, among other heinous crimes- an attitude towards violence encapsulated in his 1997 campaign slogan, “he killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I’ll vote for him.”
Taylor’s story tells us a lot about the mechanics of violence and coercion during both war and peace, and his effect on Liberia, a country still reeling from his reign of terror but also showing signs of moving on, has to be understood with these mechanics in mind.
My guest for today is Dr Christine Cheng (@cheng_christine), senior lecturer in international relations at King’s College London. Christine has a keen interest in Liberia, a country with a fascinating history, and her 2019 book “Extralegal groups in post conflict Liberia: How trade makes the state” won the Conflict Research Society’s Annual Prize. She also comments on international affairs for the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and Al-Jazeera.
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