Of all the many violent chapters in recent Southern African history, the conflicts in Angola and Mozambique since independence in 1975 have been the most protracted, complex and deadly for millions of civilians. William Minter argues that they represent a new kind of non-conventional warfare characteristic of the 'contra' period - neither classic guerrilla warfare nor straightforward external aggression, but comprising elements of civil war dominated by regional and global external powers.

He examines the Unita and Renamo social structures, external interventions, patterns of military recruitment, conditioning, logistics and strategy, and the mistakes made by the Angolan and Mozambican states.