A diverse group of academics, activists, officials and rebels contribute chapters about different aspects of conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. These chapters discuss the origins and evolution of the conflict, the various ways in which the conflict has been understood and misperceived (both locally and internationally), the profoundly gendered nature of the conflict, the status of those involved with regard to the Sudanese and international law, and the ongoing struggle for peace in the region. A substantial appendix reproduces UN, ICC, and (many for the first time in English translation) Arabic-language documents to trace the history of the conflict. The book also includes a chronology of major events in Sudan.

Darfur : a problem within a wider problem / Mansour Khalid -- Ideological expansionist movements versus historical indigenous rights in the Darfur region of Sudan : from actual homicide to potential genocide / Atta El-Battahani -- Marginalization and war : from the south to Darfur / Benaiah Yongo-Bure -- Darfur people : too black for the Arab-Islamic project of Sudan / Abdullahi Osman El-Tom -- The Darfur conflict : a natural process or war by design? / Ali B. Ali-Dinar -- Who are the Darfurians? : Arab and African identities, violence, and external engagement / Alex de Waal -- The politics of naming : genocide, civil war, insurgency / Mahmood Mamdani -- Naming the conflict : Darfur and the crisis of governance in the Sudan / Salah M. Hassan -- Darfur in the African press / Carina E. Ray -- Competing masculinities : probing political disputes as acts of violence against women from Southern Sudan and Darfur / Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf -- The Darfur war : masculinity and the construction of a Sudanese national identity / Karin Willemse -- Sudanese civil society strategizing to end sexual violence against women in Darfur / Fahima A. Hashim -- The erroneous confrontation : the dialectics of law, politics, and the prosecution of war crimes in Darfur / Kamal El-Gizouli -- Sudan's legal system and the lack of access to justice for survivors of sexual violence in Darfur / Adrienne L. Fricke and Amira Khair -- Locating responsibilities : national and international responses to the crisis in Darfur / Munzoul A. M. Assal -- The end of violence : against civil society / Grant Farred -- Power-sharing or ethnic polarization : the role of schoolteachers in conflict management in North Darfur / Musa Adam Abdul-Jalil -- A civil society approach to the Darfur crisis / Al-Tayib Zain Al-Abdin -- On the failure of Darfur peace talks in Abuja : an SLM/A insider's perspective / Abaker Mohamed Abuelbashar.