Andrew Natsios has written an excellent book on the mysterious and complicated Sudan. As a former administrator with the US Agency for International Development and Special Envoy to the Sudan during the George W. Bush administration, Natsios writes from experience in that diverse, troubled and fascinating region – consolidating the issues of post-colonial Sudan, so they can be easily understood. Natsios tells us about his conversations with the major players: the charismatic warrior-scholar, John Garang from South Sudan, who relentlessly made war with Khartoum for decades; the erratic and temperamental Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum, President since his military coup of 1989; and the Darfur rebel leader, Khalil Ibrahim, who led a brazen 2008 attack across 900 miles of scorching desert, to bring his battlefield to Khartoum's presidential palace on the banks of the Blue Nile. But the most intriguing player is hard-line Islamist Hassan al-Turabi – who lurks in the shadows and throws levers from behind the curtains, almost like the Wizard of Oz. The astonishing attack on Khartoum, by Darfur rebel leader Ibrahim, is thought to have been planned by Turabi. Turabi it was who invited bin Laden to live, build and invest his private fortune in the Sudan, in the 1990s – with bin Laden later dumped on an aeroplane to Afghanistan, leaving the Sudan penniless, stateless, another man's problem. Turabi too was part of the rise to power of Bashir, who has jailed and released him, time and again. Hassan al-Turabi is married to the sister of Sadiq al-Mahdi, yet another political leader, and the great-grandson of the Mahdi of Sudan that conquered Anglo-Egyptian Khartoum in 1880. Al-Turabi deserves a book all of his own. But the Byzantine intrigue of internal Sudanese politics is only part of this book. Author Natsios compares the Sudanese policy of the Clinton administration – confrontation, missile attacks and economic sanctions, with the Sudanese policy of the George W. Bush administration – negotiations, peace accords and foreign aid. Was the mature, measured and successful Bush policy in the Sudan so different from Clinton's, because Bush already had two full-blown wars going awry in Iraq and Afghanistan, or was it because of penetrating vision and better advisers? Natsios doesn't speculate on the hows and whys of Bush's policy in the Sudan, other than talking about a meeting he attended in the Oval Office, where Bush and Condoleezza Rica determined that a strong, well-trained military in South Sudan would likely deter Khartoum from another ground war. Natsios only says that the centrifugal forces tearing the Sudan apart have been in place for centuries. When I attended the Sudan Studies Association Conference at Ohio State University in 2011, one of the scholars there asked me, “Why is everyone so concerned about the future of South Sudan? They should be asking if Khartoum can survive secession." Khartoum has, for now, escaped the regime changes of the Arab Spring – but after losing 75 per cent of its oil revenue to South Sudan after separation, the challenges ahead are gargantuan. However thoughtful and clear this book may be, the future of the Sudan remains unwritten. Andrew S. Natsios. Sudan, South Sudan & Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know. 2012. Oxford University Press. 221 pages. ISBN: 978-0-19-976420. $16.50 Pete Willows is a contributing writer to The Egyptian Gazette, and its weekly edition, the Egyptian Mail. He lives and works in Cairo. He can be reached at [email protected]
