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Gaim Kibreab. 2017. The Eritrean National Service: Servitude for 'the Common Good' and the Youth Exodus. Rochester: James Currey Press. 207 pp.
Gaim Kibreab provides a thorough examination of the Eritrean National Service (ENS) project with a close look at the structure, effectiveness, goals, and objectives and analyzes the overall impact of this major national project on the participants, the Eritrean state, and the current refugee crisis in Europe and Israel. He offers an empirical analysis about ENS through the examination of primary collected data from key informants, surveys, peer reviewed literature, reports, and national and international media interviews with Eritrean government officials.
The book begins by looking at the rationale, main objectives, and extent of ENS. It provides a detailed analysis about the early days of its inception with proclamation N0.11/1991 of the Provisional Government of Eritrea. The next two chapters present broader theoretical and historical perspectives of national services from around the world with special focus on the philosophical perspective on the role of national service as being both the highest good to society and being an anti-freedom that erodes all forms of social liberty. The author provides an extensive scrutiny of...