The 1990s have brought unprecedented violence, economic decline and suffering for many African countries. Much of the optimism that greeted the independence decade of the 1960s, when Africa was called the "continent of the future" has turned into failure and disappointment. The increase in these conflicts has been blamed on several variables, including colonialism, ethnic diversity, end of the Cold War and economic decline. While many African countries have managed to maintain a modicum of peace, stability and growth, some have clearly failed woefully in this regard. This raises a very fundamental question: How and why did some countries manage to avert internal wars while others did not? The book measures and provides rich details of governance from contextual, structural and policy perspectives. It systematically and uniformly compares two categories of countries: those that experienced internal war and those that did not. ________________________________ Dr Abdulahi A. Osman currently teaches comparative politics and African politics at the Department of International Affairs and African Studies Institute, at the University of Georgia, USA. His teaching and research interests include African politics, governance, regional and international studies, peace and conflict, internal security and wars as well as comparative governments in the developing countries. He has published several book chapters and articles in scholarly journals, including African Renaissance and Journal of Ethno-Development.