I also served as a country expert for the United States Agency for International Development’s assessment team in South Sudan. I researched this dynamic of governance in South Sudan in a recent study. Growing distrust among the country’s elites soon led to the outbreak of civil war between 2013 and 2015. Sudan’s civil war, for instance, has pushed South Sudan to the brink of renewed violence. The next stepsOne way forward for South Sudan is to devise an effective strategy for succession in the country’s leadership.