By Andrea Estrada

The current crisis in Darfur is the most recent in a long history of turbulent relations among three African nations—Chad, Libya, and Sudan— who for more than 40 years have fought for control over the central Sahara, the Sahel, and the savanna grasslands of the greater Chad basin.

This is the authoritative view of two prominent scholars—Robert O. Collins, UCSB professor emeritus of history, and J. Millard Burr, a former State Department analyst. They have written a book examining the factors that led to the current state of emergency in Darfur and the region.

“Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster” (Markus Wiener Publishers, 2006) is an updated edition of the authors’ previous book, “Africa’s Thirty Years War: Libya, Chad, and the Sudan, 1963-1993.” In that book they studied attempts by Libyan president Muammar Qadhafi to establish an enlarged Arab Sahara/Sudanic state by destabilizing the Sudan in order to incorporate its western province, Darfur, into the Libyan empire.

The new edition covers the events of the last 13 years, from the marginalization of Darfur to the outbreak of the present insurgency in 2003, which has resulted in over 350,000 killed and 2.5 million refugees.

“To be sure, this is the most violent and bloody period,” said Collins, “but if you look back to the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and into the early ’90s you’ll see the same thing in different forms.”

The book on Darfur came about following the tremendous popularity of “Africa’s Thirty Years War,” which went out of print within a year of publication. When the copyright reverted to the authors, they suggested to the present publisher that he print an updated edition with a different title.

Collins’s other recent works include “A History of Sub-Saharan Africa,” written with James A. Burns, who completed his Ph.D. at UCSB and now teaches history at Clemson University, and the forthcoming “History of the Modern Sudan.” In addition, an Arabic translation of “Alms for Jihad: Charities and Terrorism in the Islamic World,” also written with Burr, will be released this spring.

Collins first traveled to the Sudan in 1956, one month after the country gained independence from Egypt and Great Britain. He returned regularly to live and travel through every part of the country and to carry out historical research, both in the archives and in the field, particularly the southern Sudan. He has published eight histories concerning the Sudan, Darfur, and the Nile River.

He joined the faculty at UCSB in 1965 and has served as dean of the Graduate Division and director of the UCSB Center in Washington, D.C.