Bonnie Fonseca-Greber, my thesis advisor, for guiding me throughout the thesis project and pointing me to sources and resources when I felt stuck! I would also like to thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr. David Buckley, Dr. Matthieu Dalle, and Dr. Rodger Payne, for all their invaluable feedback on drafts of the thesis which helped me challenge and push myself to better understand and explain the Casamançais conflict. I would also like to thank my Senegalese friend Mamba Ndiaye for meeting with me and telling me about Journal du Pays, which proved to be instrumental for my thesis.

No abstract

In 2015, South Sudan increased the number of its states from 10 to 28, followed by four more states in 2017. The redrawing of internal borders came through presidential decree as South Sudan's violent civil war continued to unfold. This development has led to two ardent voices: one arguing to maintain the new states, and another advocating to reverse them. Applying argumentation theory and critical discourse analysis to news articles, analysis pieces, and press releases collected from Gurtong and Sudan Tribune from July 2015 to April 2017, this article assesses the argument advanced by both camps and evaluates their implications for peace in South Sudan. In examining the claim, the counter-claim, and their underlying premises, the article finds areas of contention and convergence between the two camps and argues for the compatibility of the values which undergird both positions.