Demobilization
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Pulling the Strings? The Strategic Use of Pro-Government Mobilization in Authoritarian Regimes Open
Protest against authoritarian rule is a well-studied phenomenon in the social sciences, but mass rallies in favor of authoritarian regimes have received only limited scholarly attention. While previous work has portrayed authoritarian regi…
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Next Generation Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Open
The process of disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating ex-soldiers at conflict’s end is as old as war itself. The results of these efforts are far from even. Even so, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) has assumed a cent…
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Misdemeanor Disenfranchisement? The Demobilizing Effects of Brief Jail Spells on Potential Voters Open
This paper presents new causal estimates of incarceration’s effect on voting, using administrative data on criminal sentencing and voter turnout. I use the random case assignment process of a major county court system as a source of exogen…
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True Believers, Deserters, and Traitors Open
Anti-insurgent militias and states attempt to erode insurgent groups’ capacities and co-opt insurgent fighters by promising and providing benefits. They do so to create a perception that the insurgency is unraveling and to harness inside i…
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Resilient Communities: Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War Open
"In Resilient Communities, Jana Krause focuses on civilian agency and mobilization 'from below' and explains violence and non-violence in communal wars"
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Policy Feedback as Political Weapon: Conservative Advocacy and the Demobilization of the Public Sector Labor Movement Open
Scholars have shown that once in place policies can foster greater political participation. Indeed, politicians often deliberately design policies to shore up political support among their allies. But can political actors engineer the reve…
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Water and post-conflict peacebuilding Open
Water-management issues cut across all sectors of governance and have a critical bearing on many post-conflict challenges. The imperative of adequate water supply and the weakness of the state in a post-conflict period provide a nexus whic…
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Modern post-conflict security sector reform in Africa: patterns of success and failure Open
This piece examines recurring patterns in the 'where' and 'how' of security sector reform (SSR) implementation failures in post-conflict African SSR programmes featuring substantial external involvement that have been undertaken since the …
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Family Matters? Voting Behavior in Households with Criminal Justice Contact Open
Contact with the criminal legal system has been shown to reduce individuals’ political participation, but its effect on friends and family members is less clear. Do people who see loved ones arrested or incarcerated become mobilized to cha…
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Understanding Armed Group Proliferation in the Eastern Congo Open
After the military defeat of the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23, March 23 Movement) rebellion in November 2013, armed mobilization in the eastern DRC has continued at a frightening pace. An initial, much-advertized wave of surrenders did not pe…
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Everyday realities of reintegration: experiences of Maoist ‘verified’ women ex-combatants in the aftermath of war in Nepal Open
Global studies of women’s experiences in the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process have explored its implications for women in the post-war period. Scholars have also already pointed out that ex-combatants in Nepal ar…
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The Reach of Radio: Ending Civil Conflict through Rebel Demobilization Open
We examine the role of FM radio in mitigating violent conflict. We collect original data on radio broadcasts encouraging defections during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency. This constitutes the first quantitative evaluation of a…
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Psychotherapeutic Intervention in the Demobilization Process: Addressing Combat‐related Mental Injuries with Narrative Exposure in a First and Second Dissemination Stage Open
Background Depending on the exposure to traumatic stressors and combat, 20% to 50% of ex‐combatants present with trauma‐related disorders, and more than half of the members of armed groups have a proclivity to violence. Therefore, psychoth…
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Peacebuilding and statebuilding in post-2011 Côte d'Ivoire: A victor's peace? Open
In 2011, Côte d'Ivoire emerged from a protracted politico-military crisis not through peace negotiations, but thanks to the military defeat of former president Laurent Gbagbo and his associates. Relatively little has been written about the…
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The Logic of Ceasefires in Civil War Open
Ceasefires play a role in almost all civil war peace processes. Yet existing studies undertheorize the ways in which different logics drive the design of ceasefire agreements, and the effect this has on violence suspension. Building on bar…
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New forms of mobilization, new people mobilized? Evidence from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Open
Mobilization efforts by parties and candidates during election campaigns tend to reach those who are more likely to vote in the first place. This is thought to be particularly consequential for turnout among the young. Harder and less cost…
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Assessing the Explanatory Power of Social Movement Theories across the Life Course of the Civil Rights Movement Open
Social movements are constantly evolving. Protest activity waxes and wanes as movements suffer through prolonged periods of frustration, win occasional gains, and turn to new goals and issues. While theoretical models of protest activity a…
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Stable Instability. Political Settlements and Armed Groups in the Congo. Open
After more than two decades of ongoing violent conflict, armed groups—however fleeting their existence—have become an integral feature of the eastern Congo’s social-political order. They are not a temporary aberration in what is otherwise …
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Civil war as a social process: actors and dynamics from pre- to post-war Open
What accounts for overarching trajectories of civil wars? This article develops an account of civil war as a social process that connects dynamics of conflict from pre- to post-war periods through evolving interactions between nonstate, st…
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Navigating Social Spaces: Armed Mobilization and Circular Return in Eastern DR Congo Open
This article discusses the social mobility of combatants and introduces the notion of circular return to explain their pendular state of movement between civilian and combatant life. This phenomenon is widely observed in eastern Democratic…
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Turning ex-combatants into Sadris: explaining the emergence of the Mahdi Army Open
This article sets out to explain how the Sadrist movement targeted ex-combatant communities in their communication strategy to mobilize the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army was established by the Sadrist movement under the guidance of Muqtada al…
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The social structure of armed groups. Reproduction and change during and after conflict Open
Current research on civil wars and conflict increasingly turns to the inner structure and functioning of state and non-state armed groups and their impact on aspects such as violent practice, internal cohesion and the dissolution of these …
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Former Military Networks a Threat to Peace? The Demobilisation and Remobilization of Renamo in Central Mozambique Open
Renamo’s recent upsurge against the Mozambican Frelimo-led government after 22 years of relative stability has challenged the country’s often celebrated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process (1992–1994). Drawing on ethnogra…
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The Problem with Templates: Learning from Organic Gang-Related Violence Reduction Open
This article considers what demobilisation, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR) programmes might learn from research on gangs and the problems associated with government-instituted ‘wars on gangs’ putatively aimed at reducing or fighting …
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Rethinking Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Programs Open
This article introduces the special issue on DDR and ‘Armed Non-Statutory Actors’ (ANSAs) which we prefer to the less precise label of Armed Non-State Actors. The understanding that disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) progr…
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The demobilization of diaspora: history, memory and ‘latent identity’ Open
In the context of sustained interest in the mobilization of diasporic identities, I consider how and why diasporic identities might be demobilized over time. I use the case of an Indian Pakistani community in the UK and the USA (sometimes …
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Frames of extractivism: Small-scale goldmining formalization and state violence in Colombia Open
Colombia's economy largely relies on an extractivist logic that increasingly focuses on industrial mineral extraction. The industry is regularly depicted as a means to bring economic development, to severe the ties of illegally armed group…
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Complex gendered agency in Mexico: how women negotiate hierarchies of fear to search for the disappeared Open
Fear and agency are complex, interrelated and gendered phenomena for the madres buscadoras , the women searching for the disappeared in Mexico. These women operate in a context of unrelenting, multisided violence. At the same time, they ch…
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Militarism on the Colombian Periphery in the Context of Illegality, Counterinsurgency, and the Postconflict Open
The confluence of illegality, counterinsurgency, and marginality in Colombia has led to the militarization of social life, national politics, policy making, and state practices in peripheral areas. The state has sought not only to conquer …
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Girl soldiering in rebel groups, 1989–2013 Open
Most existing work assumes that child soldiers are under-aged males. Girl soldiers have largely been neglected so far, although they frequently have important roles in rebel groups. One reason for this shortcoming has been the lack of comp…