【2018/02/19】10th Seminar of Reconstructing the Paradigm of African Area Studies

Zoe Marks（University of Edinburgh）

Abstract:　Guerrilla war requires careful coordination between rebels and thelocal population. Yet, many groups fighting for liberation and ‘power to the people’ also attack and oppress the people. This paper examineswhy insurgents use violence against those whose support they seek. Ibegin by explaining how violence and governance are intimately connected in civil war, despite being examined in prevailingliterature as ontologically distinct categories. Both state and non-state armed groups try to assert control over social, economic,and political resources through militarized governance. As a result,force is embedded in the power struggles and authority contestations that characterize daily life in a war zone. The targeting patterns and spatial diffusion of violence cannot be understood through lenses of opportunism or information asymmetry alone. Rather, the logic of power and policing within insurgent organizations motivates the use and forms of force outside it. Using a few hundred interviews with ex-combatants and civilians, and a large set of rebel governance archives from the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, I demonstrate that patterns of violence against civilians reflect discourses of control, discipline, and obedience in pursuit of organizational power, not simply principal-agent decay. The nexus of formal laws and informal order make violent governance a much more pervasive strategy than has been previously been acknowledged in literature on guerrilla warfare.

18:30-19:00  General discussion

<Notes>
* The talk is given in English, and no translation will be provided.
* No reservation is required for participating in the Seminar.
* Admission-free.