This paper examines the Chadian government’s overwhelming
preoccupation with state security, rather than individual security,
as evidenced by its huge expenditure on arms rather than on
poverty-alleviating development projects following the
unprecedented influx of petrodollars in the years since production
began in 2003. This overemphasis on state security demonstrates
a mismatch between the availability of natural resource wealth
and ongoing low levels of socioeconomic development in Chad.
The country has instead used its enormous oil wealth to boost its
standing in the turbulent Central African and Sahelian regions
where terrorism is rife. The country’s international diplomacy,
which consists of deploying its well-equipped military in
international peacekeeping missions and in the fight against
terrorism, is a strategy of achieving international recognition while
simultaneously diverting the international community’s attention
from the country’s democracy deficit and poor human rights
record. Internally, authoritarianism and political instability are
accompanied by conflict, poverty and underdevelopment, which
in turn perpetuate the challenges facing the country.