Examines the war in Sierra Leone as a crisis of modernity.Do small wars in Africa manifest a 'new barbarism'?What appears as random, anarchic violence is no such thing. The terrifying military methods of of Sierra Leone's soldiers may not fir conventional western models of warfare,but they are rational and effective nonetheless. The war must be understood partly as a 'performance', in which techniques of terror compensate for lack of equipment.PAUL RICHARDS is Professor of Technology and Agrarian Development, Wageningen UniversityPublished in association with the International African Institute