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The African Garrison State: Human Rights and Political Development in Eritrea by Kjetil Tronvoll and Daniel R. Mekonnen Woodbridge : James Currey , 2014. Pp. 212. £45 (hbk)
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Bearing the sobriquet of 'Africa's North Korea', it should come as no surprise that scholarship on the notoriously secretive and repressive nation of Eritrea is sparse by necessity: Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea in last place in its global survey of press and media freedom every year from 2008 to 2012 (p. 9). Against this backdrop, Kjetil Tronvoll and Daniel R. Mekonnen's recent work serves as a Herculean accomplishment, rendering the book an imperative read for any serious scholar of Eritrea, the Horn of Africa, or African human rights more broadly.
The central claim of their book is that contemporary Eritrea fits sociologist George Laswell's definition of a 'garrison state'. Writing in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Laswell suggested that a garrison...