The conflict in Sierra Leone (1991–2002) has received its fair share of academic attention over the years. Particularly the search for the root causes of the conflict has preoccupied scholars, and all major schools of thought have used the civil war in pleading for their case. A volume on the variety of interventions during the conflict – and in the post-conflict reconstruction phase, as the title fails to point out – was however long due.

The conflict was never only a civil war, but saw a number of external actors playing their part; mercenary forces; regional peacekeeping troops; the largest UN blue-helmet mission up to then; British commandos, etc. Also after the conflict, the international community embraced the country and a plethora of INGOs, multi- and bilateral donors descended and started to spend significant amounts of money. For instance, Britain, the leading bilateral donor, has supported Sierra Leone with US$ 70–80 million per year since 2000. Moreover, more than a billion US$ of debt (about 90% of the total debt) was eliminated under HIPC and MDRI initiatives (Kandeh: 97–98).

The authors who contributed to When the State Fails provide detailed information on the activities of international actors in rebuilding the state and society of Sierra Leone. As such the volume is useful to any scholar with an interest in Sierra Leone's recent history or to anyone who wants to grasp the extent of what post-war reconstruction in a globalised aid world has become. But perhaps there is too much detail provided in and too much overlap between Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5. For example, some of the issues that are raised in Chapter 3 by Michael Kargbo on the role of the UK in peacebuilding in Sierra Leone are bound to be repeated by Osman Gbla's chapter on the role of external actors in Sierra Leone's Security Reform, because the UK has been a prominent driver of the SSR. And this is just one example. The three remaining chapters of the book on gender and peacebuilding, youth marginalisation and the role of diaspora fortunately do not suffer from these repetitions. In particular the chapter on the role of the Diaspora offers some interesting and not-much discussed insights, albeit with more than 40 pages it is rather long. Also, Appendix 1 which provides significant dates in the history of Sierra Leone shows a single event entry for each year during the first half of the conflict, but for 1996 and 1997 there are a combined 12 entries. And the other appendix, on the minerals and the mining industry in Sierra Leone, is somewhat misplaced in this volume. In the preface it is raised that ‘the common thread holding the contributions together is the assertion that the civil was not caused by greed or squabbling over the country's diamonds’ (p. ix) after which more than half of the preface is dedicated to explaining why this ‘blood diamond’ explanation is wrong in the first place.

In 1998 Africa Development published a special issue on Sierra Leone with contributions of Sierra Leoneans, first initiated on Leonenet. In that respect, this current publication is a sequel with again an all Sierra Leonean cast. Nominated for an Oscar perhaps, but not a likely winner.