Rebelocracy


Book Description

Conventional wisdom portrays war zones as chaotic and anarchic. In reality, however, they are often orderly. This work introduces a new phenomenon in the study of civil war: wartime social order. It investigates theoretically and empirically the emergence and functioning of social order in conflict zones. By theorizing the interaction between combatants and civilians and how they impact wartime institutions, the study delves into rebel behavior, civilian agency and their impact on the conduct of war. Based on years of fieldwork in Colombia, the theory is tested with qualitative and quantitative evidence on communities, armed groups, and individuals in conflict zones. The study shows how armed groups strive to rule civilians, and how the latter influence the terms of that rule. The theory and empirical results illuminate our understanding of civil war, institutions, local governance, non-violent resistance, and the emergence of political order.




Rebels without Borders


Book Description

Rebellion, insurgency, civil war-conflict within a society is customarily treated as a matter of domestic politics and analysts generally focus their attention on local causes. Yet fighting between governments and opposition groups is rarely confined to the domestic arena. "Internal" wars often spill across national boundaries, rebel organizations frequently find sanctuaries in neighboring countries, and insurgencies give rise to disputes between states. In Rebels without Borders, which will appeal to students of international and civil war and those developing policies to contain the regional diffusion of conflict, Idean Salehyan examines transnational rebel organizations in civil conflicts, utilizing cross-national datasets as well as in-depth case studies. He shows how external Contra bases in Honduras and Costa Rica facilitated the Nicaraguan civil war and how the Rwandan civil war spilled over into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fostering a regional war. He also looks at other cross-border insurgencies, such as those of the Kurdish PKK and Taliban fighters in Pakistan. Salehyan reveals that external sanctuaries feature in the political history of more than half of the world's armed insurgencies since 1945, and are also important in fostering state-to-state conflicts. Rebels who are unable to challenge the state on its own turf look for mobilization opportunities abroad. Neighboring states that are too weak to prevent rebel access, states that wish to foster instability in their rivals, and large refugee diasporas provide important opportunities for insurgent groups to establish external bases. Such sanctuaries complicate intelligence gathering, counterinsurgency operations, and efforts at peacemaking. States that host rebels intrude into negotiations between governments and opposition movements and can block progress toward peace when they pursue their own agendas.




THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN


Book Description

Faced with a decision that will affect the course of history and the balance of power in the Western hemisphere, the young urban professional Cosmo Valente struggles to find himself while trying to choose between the type of society he wishes to live in. Set in a future post-United States world that has fractured into several competing nations, plagued by civil war and interminable infighting, vying for supremacy over the remnants of the old Union. The clamorous powers of North America fight to protect their sovereignty from the expanding Communist regime of the newly created Latin American Alliance. Armed with nuclear weapons, these colossal forces confront each other in a showdown to which Cosmo holds the key to victory.




Incentivizing Peace


Book Description

Civil wars are among the most difficult problems in world politics. While mediation, intervention, and peacekeeping have produced some positive results in helping to end civil wars, they fall short in preventing them in the first place. In Incentivizing Peace, Jaroslav Tir and Johannes Karreth show that considering civil wars from a developmental perspective presents opportunities to prevent the escalation of nascent armed conflicts into full-scale civil wars. The authors demonstrate that highly-structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs such as the World Bank, IMF, or regional development banks) are particularly well-positioned to engage in civil war prevention. When such IGOs have been actively engaged in nations on the edge, their potent economic tools have helped to steer rebel-government interactions away from escalation and toward peaceful settlement. Incentivizing Peace provides enlightening case evidence that IGO participation is a key to better predicting, and thus preventing, the outbreak of civil war.




Rebels and Legitimacy


Book Description

Legitimacy is generally a term that is associated with the state. The term surfaces when there are problems with state legitimacy—when it is lacking or absent. This present volume attempts to think through the relevance of the concept of legitimacy for other political actors than the state. Rebel groups, in the shape of insurgents, terrorists, warlords and guerrillas, are all engaged in a process of claim making as legitimate actors representing certain political agendas and constituencies. We are interested in dissecting the processes of the emergence of legitimacy in contexts of disorder and conflict. Legitimacy is not only a belief or belief system that informs social action, but it is also a practice with a repertoire of legitimacy claiming, reinforcing, copying and emulating elements. Governance provision is an important legitimacy generating activity, just as it has been in the formation of states. The volume, however, points out that there are many more aspects to legitimacy that deserve attention. The contributors draw on a wide variety of cases and in-depth investigation to bring forward individual and micro-level dynamics related to legitimacy claims, as well as bringing forward the often-times problematic role of external actors when it comes to legitimacy and illegitimacy dynamics. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies.




Pathfinder Tales: Liar's Bargain


Book Description

Paizo Publishing is the award-winning publisher of fantasy roleplaying games, accessories, and board games. Pathfinder Tales: Liar's Bargain is the latest in their popular novel series. The sequel to Hugo Award Winner Tim Pratt’s Liar’s Island! For charming con man Rodrick and his talking sword Hrym, life is all about taking what you can and getting away clean. But when the pair are arrested in the crusader nation of Lastwall, Rodrick faces immediate execution, with Hrym spending the rest of eternity trapped in an enchanted scabbard. Their only hope lies in a secret government program in which captured career criminals are teamed up and sent on suicide missions too sensitive for ordinary soldiers. Trapped between almost certain death and actual certain death, the two join forces with a team of rogues and scoundrels, ready to serve their year-long tenure as best they can. Yet not everyone in their party is what they seem, and a death sentence may only be the start of the friends’ problems. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Last Ugly Person


Book Description

What would happen if ... a society ever actually succeeded in eliminating its undesirable members? ... a man was asked to travel through a land he did not know to bring a prisoner before a king he had never seen? The tales in The Last Ugly Person and Other Stories explore these and other themes using a variety of mythological settings. Both entertaining and thought provoking, these short stories are novellas written from an unapologetically Christian viewpoint. Awash in hope, yet fully recognizing the agony of sin and destruction, these stories avoid both sugary unreality and bleak pessimism, weaving instead a rich and intricate tapestry that reflects the complex ways in which man responds to the call of Christ. These are very well told stories that are enjoyable to read, and at the same time incarnate Christian truths in a way that is genuinely literary and quite believable, while indirectly delving in to the deeper meaning of the human personality, the mystery of evil, and the goodness of God.




Inside Insurgency


Book Description

Through interviews and on-the-ground research, this book provides a new explanation of the nature of insurgent group behavior. Through case studies of the SPLA, FARC, and PKK, it offers an intimate understanding of modern day insurgent/terrorist groups and their tactics as well as an explanation of the changing behavior of insurgent groups toward the civilians they claim to represent.




The Congressional Globe


Book Description




What Rebels Want


Book Description

How easy is it for rebel groups to purchase weapons and ammunition in the middle of a war? How quickly can commodities such as diamonds and cocoa be converted into cash to buy war supplies? And why does answering these questions matter for understanding civil wars? In What Rebels Want, Jennifer M. Hazen challenges the commonly held view that rebel groups can get what they want, when they want it, and when they most need it. Hazen's assessments of resource availability in the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire lead to a better understanding of rebel group capacity and options for war and war termination.Resources entail more than just cash; they include various other economic, military, and political goods, including natural resources, arms and ammunition, safe haven, and diplomatic support. However, rebel groups rarely enjoy continuous access to resources throughout a conflict. Understanding fluctuations in fortune is central to identifying the options available to rebel groups and the reasons why a rebel group chooses to pursue war or peace. The stronger the group's capacity, the more options it possesses with respect to fighting a war. The chances for successful negotiations and the implementation of a peace agreement increase as the options of the rebel group narrow. Sustainable negotiated solutions are most likely, Hazen finds, when a rebel group views negotiations not as one of the solutions for obtaining what it wants, but as the only solution.