International records / OpenAlex research

Security Delima and Civil War in the New State: A Study of Nigeria Civil War

This paper examined the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) through the lens of the security dilemma to understand how fear, mistrust, and weak institutions in a newly independent state escalated into one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts. The security dilemma, rooted in the works of Herz and Jervis, explains how defensive measures by one group are perceived as offensive threats by others, leading to spirals of insecurity and eventual conflict. Using secondary sources and content analysis, the study analyzed how the January and July 1966 coups, ethnic massacres, and mutual perceptions of insecurity c…