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ABSTRACT
Academic literature on post-conflict peace-building and democratisation has established the important relevance of rebel-to-party transformations on the one hand, and of the political engagement of individual former combatants on the other hand. Yet, little is known about the interrelation between these two dimensions. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap, by proposing a framework to scrutinise former rebel parties’ ways of mobilising their former combatants politically. Based on a review of theoretical and empirical literature, we suggest three broad mobilisation strategies: the employment of material incentives, control and coercion, and strategies to nurture a sense of identification or even groupness. Given that this last dimension is less tangible than the first two, we further explore and conceptually dissect it, by discussing – what we argue to be – three of its main inherent components: ideology, emotions and patronage. By doing so, we hope to conceptually guide and inform future empirical research on the topic.
Acknowledgement
I am saddened that my co-author and dedicated PhD supervisor, Bert Ingelaere, does not get to see this article published anymore – but grateful for having had the opportunity to work with him, and happy that this article will be a little part of the academic legacy he leaves behind. In both our names, I would like to thank the organisers and participants of the Virtual Seminar Series “From Armed to Non-Armed Politics” for the opportunity to present an earlier version of this article and for the constructive feedback received. I am also highly grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank the editor and the editorial team of Conflict, Security & Development.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Söderström, Peacebuilding and Ex-Combatants, 1.
2. Söderberg Kovacs and Hatz, ‘Rebel-to-Party Transformations’.
3. Manning and Smith, ‘Electoral Performance by Post-Rebel Parties’, 416.
4. Manning and Smith, ‘Political Party Formation’.
5. Söderberg Kovacs and Hatz, ‘Rebel-to-Party Transformations’.
6. United Nations, ‘Operational Guide’, 177.
7. Wittig, ‘Politics in the Shadow of the Gun’, 140.
8. Lyons, ‘From Victorious Rebels’.
9. Höglund, ‘Violence in War-to-Democracy Transitions’.
10. Horowitz and Stam, ‘Prior Military Experience’, 555.
11. Alfieri, ‘Le Palipehutu-FNL’; Berti, ‘Rebel Politics and the State’; Wittig, ‘Politics in the Shadow of the Gun’.
12. Wittig, ‘Politics in the Shadow of the Gun’, 138.
13. Berti, ‘Rebel Politics and the State’, 118.
14. Teigen, ‘Enduring Effects of the Uniform’, 601.
15. Söderström, Living Politics after War, 1.
16. Most often, the terms ‘veteran’ and ‘ex-combatant’ refer to former members of state armies and non-state armed groups respectively. This dichotomy often overlaps with a differentiation between the Global North and the Global South, and often comes with moral and normative connotations, as McMullin and Söderström note. Yet, as Söderström argues, empirical data does often not support such a rigid division between categories. In her study on the process of returning home from war, she highlights commonalities across divides, ‘for whatever we call them – former combatants, veterans, ex-combatants, ex-front soldiers, former insurgents, former guerillas, freedom fighters, ex-servicemen, and so on’. Such similarities have also been stressed by McMullin, who notes that ‘actions of both “veterans” and “combatants” during and after war are often markedly similar’. We therefore believe it is useful and valid to draw as well on the scholarship on veterans of state armies when discussing certain dynamics at play at the individual level, even though this article’s focus on contexts of rebel-to-party transformations ‘naturally’ limits our overall attention to ex-combatants of former non-state armed groups. (McMullin, ‘Integration or Separation?’, 400; Söderström, Living Politics after War, 3).
17. Teigen, ‘Enduring Effects of the Uniform’.
18. Blattman, ‘From Violence to Voting’, 231.
19. Nesbit and Reingold, ‘Soldiers to Citizens’.
20. McGregor, ‘The Politics of Disruption’.
21. Colombo et al., ‘From Rebellion to Electoral Violence’.
22. Christensen and Utas, ‘Mercenaries of Democracy’.
23. Clubb, ‘From Terrorists to Peacekeepers’.
24. Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’, 193.
25. Söderström, Peacebuilding and Ex-Combatants, 215.
26. Söderström, ‘The Resilient, the Remobilized, and the Removed’; Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’
27. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’.
28. Burihabwa, Continuity and Contingency; Lyons, ‘From Victorious Rebels’; Muriaas et al., ‘Political Capital of Ruling Parties’; Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’
29. Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’, 196.
30. Ibid.
31. Themnér, ‘A Leap of Faith’, 309.
32. Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’, 208.
33. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’; Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’.
34. Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’, 98.
35. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, 609.
36. Wiegink, ‘The Forgotten Sons of the State’, 47.
37. Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’, 102.
38. Christensen and Utas, ‘Mercenaries of Democracy’; Clubb, ‘From Terrorists to Peacekeepers’; Persson, ‘Demobilized or Remobilized?’; Themnér, ‘Former Mid-Level Commanders’; Themnér, ‘A Leap of Faith’; Themnér, ‘Former Military Networks’; Themnér, ‘Wealth in Ex-Combatants’; Wiegink, ‘Former Military Networks’.
39. Van Acker, Understanding Burundi’s Predicament, 7.
40. Themnér, ‘Former Mid-Level Commanders’; Themnér, ‘A Leap of Faith’; Themnér, ‘Former Military Networks’; Themnér, ‘Wealth in Ex-Combatants’.
41. Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’, 198.
42. Ibid.
43. Eck, ‘Coercion in Rebel Recruitment’.
44. Themnér, ‘Former Military Networks’; Themnér and Karlén, ‘Building a Safety Net’.
45. Themnér, ‘Wealth in Ex-Combatants’, 530.
46. Brusco et al., ‘Voter Buying in Argentina’; Sandholt Jensen and Justesen, ‘Poverty and Vote Buying’.
47. Eck, ‘Coercion in Rebel Recruitment’; Sawyer and Andrews, ‘Rebel Recruitment and Retention’; Thorpe and Cameron, ‘Your Country Needs You!’.
48. Hedlund, Hutu Rebels.
49. Scott, Laurent Nkunda.
50. Söderström, ‘The Resilient, the Remobilized, and the Removed’, 228.
51. Ibid., 229.
52. Söderström, ‘Second Time Around’, 417.
53. Söderström, Peacebuilding and Ex-Combatants, 168.
54. Maringira, ‘Militarised Minds’.
55. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’.
56. Ibid., 17 [emphasis in original].
57. Ibid., 19.
58. Ibid., 19.
59. Castano et al., ‘Social Identification Processes’; Littman, ‘Perpetrating Violence Increases Identification’; Littman and Paluck, ‘The Cycle of Violence’.
60. Nussio and Oppenheim, ‘Anti-Social Capital’, 1002–1003.
61. Castano et al., ‘Social Identification Processes’.
62. Littman, ‘Perpetrating Violence Increases Identification’, 1078.
63. Ibid, 1077–1078.
64. Kalyvas, ‘Ethnic Defection in Civil War’, 1063.
65. Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups, 19.
66. Littman, ‘Perpetrating Violence Increases Identification’, 1077.
67. Swann et al., ‘Identity Fusion and Self-Sacrifice’; Swann et al., ‘When Group Membership gets Personal’; Swann et al., ‘What Makes a Group Worth Dying for?’; Swann et al., ‘Identity Fusion’.
68. Littman, ‘Perpetrating Violence Increases Identification’, 1077.
69. Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups, 19.
70. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’, 16.
71. Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups, 79.
72. Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups.
73. Ibid., 17 [emphasis in original].
74. Ibid., 79.
75. Leader Maynard, ‘Ideological Analysis’.
76. Fine and Sandstrom, ‘Ideology in Action’, 24.
77. Leader Maynard and Benesch, ‘Dangerous Speech and Dangerous Ideology’, 73.
78. Freeden, Ideology, 2.
79. Ibid., 2.
80. Van Dijk, ‘Ideology and Discourse Analysis’, 116.
81. Ibid., 116 [emphasis in original].
82. Freeden, ‘Practising Ideology and Ideological Practices’, 307.
83. Van Dijk, ‘Ideology and Discourse Analysis’, 116.
84. Fine and Sandstrom, ‘Ideology in Action’, 34.
85. Homer-Dixon et al., ‘A Complex Systems Approach’, 346.
86. Straus, Making and Unmaking Nations, 329.
87. Sanín and Wood, ‘Ideology in Civil War’, 214 [emphasis in original].
88. Curtis and Sindre, ‘Transforming State Visions’; Sanín and Wood, ‘Ideology in Civil War’; Schubiger and Zelina, ‘Ideology in Armed Groups’; Thaler, ‘Ideology and Violence’; Ugarriza, ‘Ideologies and Conflict’; Ugarriza and Craig, ‘The Relevance of Ideology’.
89. Ugarriza and Craig, ‘The Relevance of Ideology’, 469.
90. Zald, ‘Ideologically Structured Action’.
91. Ugarriza and Craig, ‘The Relevance of Ideology’, 468.
92. Sanín and Wood, ‘Ideology in Civil War’, 220.
93. Leader Maynard, ‘Ideological Analysis’.
94. Van Dijk, ‘Ideology and Discourse Analysis’, 116.
95. Ibid.
96. Homer-Dixon et al., ‘A Complex Systems Approach’, 351.
97. Giugni, ‘Personal and Biographical Consequences’.
98. Friðriksdóttir, ‘Ex-combatants as Social Activists’.
99. Curtis and Sindre, ‘Transforming State Visions’, 394.
100. Ibid., 388.
101. Chemouni and Mugiraneza, ‘Ideology and Interests’.
102. Burihabwa and Curtis, ‘The Limits of Resistance Ideologies?’
103. Berti, ‘Rebel Groups between Adaptation and Ideological Continuity’; Sindre, ‘Adapting to Peacetime Politics?’; Sprenkels, ‘Ambivalent Moderation’.
104. Berti, ‘Rebel Groups between Adaptation and Ideological Continuity’, 516.
105. Ibid., 517.
106. Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’ 198.
107. Subedi, ‘Ex-Combatants, Security, and Post-Conflict Violence’, 48.
108. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’.
109. Ibid., 17 [emphasis in original].
110. Ibid., 19.
111. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’, 415.
112. Some emotion scholars refer to these temporally relatively stable dispositions as ‘emotional sentiments’.
113. Goodwin et al., ‘Emotional Dimensions of Social Movements’, 418.
114. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’.
115. Staniland, ‘Militias, Ideology, and the State’, 787.
116. Fine and Sandstrom, ‘Ideology in Action’, 29.
117. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’.
118. Ibid., 417.
119. Swann et al., ‘When Group Membership Gets Personal’, 449.
120. Ibid, 449.
121. Nussio and Oppenheim, ‘Anti-Social Capital’.
122. Grossman, On Killing, 238.
123. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’.
124. Nussio and Oppenheim, ‘Anti-Social Capital’, 1000.
125. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’, 19.
126. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’, 417–418.
127. Ibid., 402.
128. Söderström, Peacebuilding and Ex-Combatants, 162–163.
129. Goodwin et al., ‘Emotional Dimensions of Social Movements’, 419.
130. Ibid., 419.
131. Ibid., 422.
132. Ibid., 422.
133. Nussio, ‘Emotional Legacies of War’.
134. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest’, 414.
135. Ibid., 405.
136. Nussio, ‘Emotional Legacies of War’.
137. Goodwin et al., ‘Emotional Dimensions of Social Movements’, 414.
138. Mackie and Smith, ‘Intergroup Emotions’; Mackie and Smith, ‘Intergroup Emotions Theory’; Mackie et al., ‘Intergroup Emotions and Intergroup Relations’.
139. Gross and Thompson, ‘Emotion Regulation’; Goldenberg et al., ‘The Process Model of Group-Based Emotions’.
140. Brubaker and Cooper, ‘Beyond “Identity”’, 19.
141. Laitinen and Pessi, ‘Solidarity: Theory and Practice’, 1.
142. Ibid., 6.
143. Weingrod, ‘Patrons, Patronage, and Political Parties’, 379.
144. Bearfield, ‘What is Patronage?’, 67.
145. Weingrod, ‘Patrons, Patronage, and Political Parties’, 380.
146. Bearfield, ‘What is Patronage?’; Weingrod, ‘Patrons, Patronage, and Political Parties’.
147. Bearfield, ‘What is Patronage?’, 67.
148. Weingrod, ‘Patrons, Patronage, and Political Parties’, 378–379.
149. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, 599.
150. Ibid., 603.
151. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’; Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’; Sindre, ‘In whose Interest?’; Wiegink, ‘The Forgotten Sons of the State’; Wiegink, ‘”It Will Be Our Time to Eat”’.
152. The question may arise here of how patronage differs from the provision of material incentives as discussed earlier in this article, given that both (potentially) involve the provision of material benefits of some kind. In practice, a clear distinction between the two might indeed prove challenging in some cases. Yet, in theory, we would argue, there is an analytically useful and important difference between the two, if we understand patronage as an expression of solidarity between group members of unequal status – as we suggest for the case at hand. While the mere provision of material incentives is primarily about serving individual self-interest, patronage is mainly about expressing solidarity and nurturing identification. The difference thus lies less in what is given, than in why it is given – or in other words in the (perceived) motivation behind it.
153. Wiegink, ‘The Forgotten Sons of the State’.
154. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, 603.
155. Ibid., 598 [emphasis in original].
156. Söderström, ‘The Resilient, the Remobilized, and the Removed’.
157. Wiegink, ‘The Forgotten Sons of the State’; Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’.
158. Söderström, ‘The Resilient, the Remobilized, and the Removed’, 226.
159. Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’, 102.
160. Kopecký and Mair, ‘Party Patronage’, 3.
161. Ibid., 3.
162. Söderström, ‘The Resilient, the Remobilized, and the Removed’.
163. Kopecký and Mair, ‘Party Patronage’, 3.
164. Metsola and Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes’, 102.
165. Ibid., 102.
166. Knoke, ‘Incentives in Collective Action Organizations’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eliane Giezendanner
Eliane Giezendanner holds an MA in African Studies from the University of Basel, Switzerland. She is currently an FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders) PhD Fellow at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium. Her research focuses on former combatants in Burundi.
Bert Ingelaere
Bert Ingelaere (†) was assistant professor at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research focused on the legacy of mass violence and (forced) migration in Africa’s Great Lakes region. He unexpectedly passed away on 4 February 2022.