Inside Insurgency: Violence, Civilians, and Revolutionary Group Behavior

by Claire Metelits

Overview

Once considered nationalists, many insurgent groups are now labeled as terrorists and thought to endanger not just their own people, but the world. As the unprecedented trends in political violence among insurgents have taken shape, and as hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to be displaced, brutalized, and killed, Inside Insurgency provides startling insights that help to explain the nature of insurgent behavior.
Claire Metelits draws from over 100 interviews with insurgent soldiers, commanders, government officials, scholars, and civilians in Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, Turkey, and Iraq, offering a new understanding of insurgent group behavior and providing compelling and intimate portraits of the SPLA, FARC, and PKK. The engaging narratives that emerge from her on-the-ground fieldwork provide incredibly valuable and accurate first-hand documentation of the tactics of some of the world’s most notorious insurgent groups. Inside Insurgency offers the reader a timely and intimate understanding of these movements, and explains the changing behavior of insurgent groups toward the civilians they claim to represent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814796092
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Claire Metelits is assistant professor of political science at Washington State University.

Table of Contents

Preface 1 Insurgents and Civilian-targeted violence  2 rivals and the Logic of Insurgent violence  3 “The elephant Is Not Yet Dead”: The reform of the sPLA 4 From Jekyll to Hyde: The transformation of the FArC  5 Freedom Fighters or terrorists? The ongoing transformations of the Pkk 6 The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Active rivalry Notes  Bibliography  Index  About the Author 

Editorial Reviews

"Inside Insurgencyaddresses a question important to both academics and policymakers: How does one explain the variation in the types and level of victimization of civilian populations by insurgent groups."

Middle East Quarterly - Max Abrahams

"“A highlight of the final chapter is its finding that well-intentioned reform carried out by states can inadvertently lead to increased insurgent violence."

CHOICE

"Metelit's book is a great contribution. It offers a relevant, parsimonious and testable theory, while at the same time providing a good springboard into three cases where there is still a lot to be understood."

Global Policy

"Metelits has written an engaging study that contributes a wealth of original data on three insurgencies as well as an innovative argument for why they behave differently toward civilian populations."

Deborah Avant

"Metelits's book is a very useful contribution to undertanding why insurgent groups act as they do. Her first-hand research also will provide grist for futher efforts to explain the strategies and tactics of insurgencies."

Paul R. Pillar

A highlight of the final chapter is its finding that well-intentioned reform carried out by states can inadvertently lead to increased insurgent violence.”-CHOICE

"Inside Insurgency addresses a question important to both academics and policymakers: How does one explain the variation in the types and level of victimization of civilian populations by insurgent groups."-Max Abrahams,Middle East Quarterly

From the Publisher