Legacies of Rebel and Paramilitary Governance

Abstract

This Special Issue extends the debate on governance by armed groups to its post-war legacies. We conceptualise the legacies of governance by armed groups and present the findings of seven case studies and a multiple-case thematic study. These cases feature Uganda, Sri Lanka, Angola, Colombia, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Eritrea. On this basis we identify six sources of variation that capture the most significant differences in legacy outcomes. These include the type of armed group, the duration and intensity of wartime governance, geographies of governance, the influence of foreign actors, civil war outcomes and whether it concerns a material or symbolic legacy. The Special Issue aims to contribute to an explanation of how and why rebel and paramilitary governance legacies exist, and take shape in the ways that they do. In doing so it attempts to make four distinct contributions to existing scholarship on rebel and paramilitary governance. First, it puts the subject of legacies of rebel and paramilitary governance on the research agenda inviting further debate, case study work and comparisons; second, it offers a finer-grained conceptualisation of the notion of rebel and paramilitary governance legacy; third, it provides an analytical framework for studying sources of variation in rebel and paramilitary governance legacies; fourth, and finally, it presents a systematic empirical exploration of multiple case studies on rebel and paramilitary governance legacies, including hypotheses for a broader analysis beyond the individual cases.