Strategies of Armed Group Consolidation in the Afghan Civil War (1989–2001)*

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Megan Erickson ◽  
Michael Gabbay
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Afghan Civil War

Studying Desertion in the spanish Civil War

Desertion ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
Théodore McLauchlin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Group Characteristics

This chapter develops the account of desertion primarily in the context of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, which clarifies the role of several variables through Spain. It looks at many different organizations on both the rebel side and the Republican side in order to examine the impact of different armed group characteristics on desertion. It uses the Spain case study to understand desertion dynamics in a particularly fascinating civil conflict. The chapter focuses on the Republican side, analyzing the dynamics of its relatively high rate of desertion at various points in the conflict. It demonstrates norms of cooperation and coercion at the micro level to statistically assess individual soldiers' decisions to fight or to flee.

Seeking Safety: Avoiding Displacement and Choosing Destinations in Civil Wars

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbey Steele
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Community Characteristics ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Direct Violence ◽  
Perverse Effect ◽  
Shared Characteristic

Despite civil war violence, some civilians stay in their communities. Those who leave choose one of many possible destinations. Drawing on fieldwork in Colombia, this article argues that the way armed groups target civilians explains households' decisions about displacement. When groups of civilians are targeted based on a shared characteristic — `collective' targeting — their best options for avoiding violence differ from those targeted selectively or indiscriminately. This article outlines conditions under which people can stay in contexts of collective targeting, and where they are likely to go if these conditions are not met. A civilian facing collective targeting could move to a rival group's stronghold, cluster with others similarly targeted, or seek anonymity in a city or different region. Community characteristics, such as whether it is urban or rural, as well as macro characteristics of the war, such as whether or not there is an ascriptive cleavage, shape which decisions are relatively safest, which in turn leads to implications for aggregate patterns. For example, clustering together has a perverse effect: even though hiding among others with similar characteristics may reduce an individual's likelihood of suffering direct violence, the community may be more endangered as it is perceived to be affiliated with an armed group. This then leads to a cycle of collective targeting and displacement, which has important implications for the development of warfare. In turn, this cycle and related cleavage formation may have long-term impacts on postwar stability and politics.

scholarly journals MEMORIES AND STORIES OF RETURNING HOME IN KHALED HOSSEINI'S NOVELS THE KITE RUNNER, AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

2020 ◽  
Vol XI (31) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Spirovska
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Sibling Relationships ◽  
Home Country ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Leaving Home ◽  
Returning Home ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Afghan Civil War ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this paper is to analyze the acts of returning home, thinking about home and the significance of home and returning home in Khaled Hosseini’s novels The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and in the novel And the Mountains Echoed. As an American writer of Afghan origin, who left his home country as a child and moved to USA, Khaled Hosseini addresses the concepts of leaving home, immigration, and returning home in all of his published novels. In 2003, Khaled Hosseini published his first novel The Kite Runner. This story depicts the friendship between two Afghan boys, whose relationship is broken by the Afghan civil war and the violence before and in the aftermath of the war. In this novel, returning home is an act of redemption on behalf of Amir, for the betrayal of his best friend Hassan. Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, describes the relationship between two women and their lives under the Taliban regime. Mariam’s and Laila’s life stories are intertwined the moment Laila, forced by the circumstances in Kabul during the civil war and the loss of her parents and her home, accepts Rasheed’s marriage proposal, becoming his second wife. The strained relationship between her and Mariam develops into close friendship, which ends the day Mariam kills Rasheed to protect Laila. Laila returns to Afghanistan and visits Mariam’s home. For her, this is an act of paying respect, of visiting a place where she can sense Mariam’s soul and her presence. And the Mountains Echoed presents the life stories of a number of characters, mutually connected in different ways. One of the sibling relationships described is the relationship between Pari and Abdullah who are separated as children. Pari, who leaves her home and is adopted, always feels the strange sensation of being homesick and missing somebody or something in her life. For Pari, who plans to travel to Afghanistan in attempt to find the answers to her questions, the act of returning home is exploring her own personality and heritage.

scholarly journals Collective Threat Framing and Mobilization in Civil War

2016 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANASTASIA SHESTERININA
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Recruitment ◽  
Other Regarding ◽  
War Mobilization ◽  
Different Levels

Research on civil war mobilization emphasizes armed group recruitment tactics and individual motivations to fight, but does not explore how individuals come to perceive the threat involved in civil war. Drawing on eight months of fieldwork with participants and nonparticipants in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992–93, this article argues that social structures, within which individuals are embedded, provide access to information critical for mobilization decisions by collectively framing threat. Threat framing filters from national through local leadership, to be consolidated and acted on within quotidian networks. Depending on how the threat is perceived—whether toward the self or the collectivity at its different levels—individuals adopt self- to other-regarding roles, from fleeing to fighting on behalf of the collectivity, even if it is a weaker actor in the war. This analysis sheds light on how the social framing of threat shapes mobilization trajectories and how normative and instrumental motivations interact in civil war.

NATO's Intervention in the Afghan Civil War

Civil Wars ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sperling ◽  
Mark Webber
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Afghan Civil War
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