Calestous Juma, an author and professor at Harvard Kennedy School, writes in an East African opinion piece that as South Sudan prepares for independence on July 9, it “is the time” for the country “to chart a new path by defining a new role for its military” by “shift[ing] its military budget to development objectives.” He adds, “This would be the most enduring peace dividend that can come out of the long struggle for self-determination and prosperity.”

South Sudan can look to examples of other African nations, such as Rwanda, and other nations like Costa Rica, which “abolished its army in 1948 and reallocated part of the financial resources thus saved to internal security, health, education and culture. Today the country’s army comprises medical doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers and other productive members of society,” he writes (6/26).