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ABSTRACT
How do armed movements gain civilian compliance and prevent counter-mobilization in localities under their wartime control? This paper argues that rebel capacity to control civilians is contingent on the coalitions formed between rebel mid-level commanders and elite groups embedded in local communities. Rebels are confronted with coalitional choices because local communities are contested and comprised of multiple sets of elite groups. Coalitional choices influence rebel control because they determine whether rebels ally with strong or weak local partners. Where rebel allies are weak, they should confront serious challenges to eliciting civilian compliance. Where rebel allies are stronger, rebels should confront less resistance. I argue that the availability of elites as potential allies for armed movements depends on their pre-conflict proximity to the state. This paper develops this argument through a comparison of three localities governed by the Forces Nouvelles (FN) in Côte d’Ivoire (2002–2011).
Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this article were presented at meetings of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), the International Studies Association (ISA), the Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association (APPSA) and the West Africa Research Association (WARA). I am extremely thankful for the constructive feedback provided by the journal editorial team, two anonymous reviewers, as well as Kathrin Heitz, Rachel Sigman, Karlo Basta, Kirssa Cline Ryckman, Matthew I. Mitchell, Pierre Englebert, Leander Schneider, Michael Lipson, and Amy Poteete.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2024.2303805
Notes
1. Arouna, ‘Affrontement entre jeunes’, interview with former elected politician (Abidjan, June 2023).
2. See Barter, Civilian Strategy in Civil War; Arjona ‘Civil Resistance in Rebel Governance’; van Baalen, ‘Local elites, civil resistance, and the responsiveness of rebel governance’; Bamber and Svensson ‘Resisting Radicals’.
3. Speight, ‘Warlord Undone?’.
4. Barter, ‘The Rebel State in Society’, 231.
5. Themnér and Utas, ‘Governance through brokerage’, 264.
6. Boone, Political Topographies, 262–264.
7. Themnér, ‘Former Military Networks’; Thurston, Jihadists of North Africa.
8. Pfeifer and Schwab, ‘Politicising the rebel governance paradigm’, 2.
9. See Arjona, Rebelocracy and Rubin, ‘Rebel Territorial Control’ as prominent examples.
10. Wood, ‘The social processes of civil war’; Chauveau and Richards, ‘West African insurgencies’; Englebert, Africa: Unity, Sovereignty and Sorrow; McGovern, Making War in Côte d’Ivoire; Peters, War and the Crisis of Youth; de Bruijn & Both, ‘Youth between rebel and state (dis)orders’.
11. See Bamber and Svensson, ‘Resisting Radical Rebels’ and Svensson and Finnbogason, ‘Confronting the caliphate?’.
12. Mampilly and Stewart, ‘A Typology of Rebel Political Institutional Arrangements’, 32–34.
13. Schlichte and Schneckener, ‘Armed Groups and Legitimacy’, 417–418.
14. Mampilly, Rebel Rulers; Raeymaekers, ‘Post-War Conflict’; Staniland, ‘States, Insurgents and Wartime Political Orders’ 2014; Raleigh and De Bruijne, ‘Where Rebels Dare to Tread’; Arjona, Rebelocracy; Worrall, ‘(Re-)Emergent Orders’; Waterman and Worrall, ‘Spinning Multiple Plates’.
15. Arjona, Rebelocracy, ch. 3.
16. Rubin, ‘Rebel Territorial Control’.
17. Kasfir, Frerks, and Terpstra ‘Introduction: Armed Groups’, 262.
18. Arjona, Rebelocracy, 76–78.
19. Waterman and Worrall, ‘Spinning Multiple Plates’, 19.
20. Hurd, ‘Legitimacy and Authority’, p. 381; Lake ‘Rightful Rules’, 591–592.
21. Sikor and Lund, The Politics of Possession, 6.
22. Stewart, Governing for Revolution, 8.
23. Poteete and Ribot, ‘Repertoires of Domination’, 440.
24. Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’, 697.
25. See Sandor and Campana, ‘Les groups djihadistes au Mali’; Thurston, Jihadists of North Africa.
26. Englebert, Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow, 168. See also: Peters, War and the Crisis of Youth; Peters and Richards, ‘Rebellion and agrarian tensions’; McGovern, Making War in Côte d’Ivoire, 55.
27. Boone, Property and Political Order, 74.
28. McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, Dynamics of Contention, 142–143; Olivier de Sardan, Anthropology and Development, ch.11; Beck, Brokering Democracy; McGovern, Making War in Côte d’Ivoire; Koter ‘King Makers’.
29. Boone, Political Topographies, 21.
30. Tsai, Accountability without Democracy, 96.
31. Boone, Political Topographies, 27.
32. Beck, Brokering Democracy.
33. Hassan et al. ‘Political Control’, 157.
34. The builds on Arjona’s conceptualization of resistance. See: ‘Civilian Resistance’, 183.
35. Boone, Political Topographies, 33.
36. Boutillier, ‘La ville de Bouna’, p. 4 and Bouna, royaume de la savane, 22–24.
37. Boutillier, Bouna, royaume de la savane, 211–218.
38. Ibid., 135–155.
39. Fiéloux, Les Sentiers de la Nuit, 25; Savonnet, ‘Installation des Lobi’ 24; Boutillier, Bouna, royaume de la savane, 361–363.
40. Kambou-Ferrand, ‘Guerre et résistance’, 85–86; Fiéloux, Les Sentiers de la Nuit, 25; Amman, ‘The Lobi in French’, 145–147.
41. Savonnet, ‘Installation des Lobi’, 23–24.
42. Boutillier, Bouna, royaume de la savane, 370.
43. Savonnet, ‘Installation des Lobi’, 24–25.
44. Chaléard, Temps des villes, 425.
45. Kouamé, ‘Bouna a des blues’; Abalo, ‘Les populations racontent’.
46. Interview with member of local NGO (January 2011).
47. Interview with former elected politician (Abidjan, June 2023).
48. Arouna, Sylla. ‘Affrontement entre jeunes’.
49. Gunderson, ‘Village elders and regional intermediaries’, 40–42; Fauré and Labazée, Socio-Économie des Villes Africaines, 315.
50. Boone, Political Topographies, 252.
51. Ibid., 258–259.
52. Ibid., 260, 267; Gunderson, ‘Village elders and regional intermediaries’, 121, 130–131.
53. Labazée, Pascal. ‘Les dynamiques du champ du pouvoir’, 220; Gayé, ‘Pouvoir traditionnel’, 119.
54. Gayé, ‘Pouvoir traditionnel’, 229–264
55. Interview with journalist (Korhogo, February 2011).
56. International Crisis Group, ‘No Peace in Sight’, 22; Depeyla, ‘Senoufo et Koyaka’.
57. Interview with ex-FN combatant (Korhogo, February 2011).
58. Interview with journalist (Korhogo, February 2011).
59. Förster, ‘Maintenant, on sait qui est qui’, 714.
60. Koffi, ‘Succession dans la famille’.
61. Interview with Coulibaly family member (Korhogo, February 2011).
62. Interview with journalist (Korhogo, February 2011). Kassoum Coulibaly passed away soon after in 2009.
63. Nassa, ‘Dynamisme d’une ville’, 9.
64. Ibid.
65. Sidwaya. ‘Komyamba Issaka Sawadogo’.
66. Rouamba, ‘Burkinabè de la diaspora’.
67. Interview with ex-combatants (Ouangolodougou, June 2022).
68. Interviews with local politicians (Ouangolodougou, December 2010).
69. Nassa, ‘Les frontières nord’.
70. Niangoran, Martial. ‘Filière bétail’.
71. USAID, ‘12th IRTG/UEMOA Report’.
72. Nassa, ‘Dynamisme d’une ville’, 10.
73. Interviews with traders (Ouangolodougou, December 2010).
74. Rouamba, ‘Burkinabè de la diaspora’.
75. Zabril, ‘Magouille et non-loi’.
76. Ba, ‘Filière Bétail et viande’; Bakayoko, ‘Sawadogo-Kossonou’.
77. Interview with trader (Ouangolodougou, December 2010).
78. Interview with ex-FN member (Korhogo, February 2011).
79. Interview with trader (Ouangolodougou, December 2010).
80. Interview with local politician (Ouangolodougou, December 2010).
81. Interview with local politician (Ouangolodougou, December 2010); interview with ex-FN member (Korhogo, January 2011).
82. Interview with former elected politician (Abidjan, June 2023).
83. See van Baalen, ‘Local elites, civil resistance, and the responsiveness of rebel governance’, Heitz, ‘Power-Sharing in the Local Arena’.
84. Waterman and Worrall, ‘Spinning Multiple Plates’, 14.
85. Reno, ‘Patronage politics’, Raeymaekers, ‘Post-war conflict’, Boone Property and Political Order.
86. Martin, Piccolino, and Speight, ‘Ex-rebel authority after civil war’.
87. See Marten, Warlords, as a prominent example of this literature.
88. Martin, Piccolino, and Speight, ‘Ex-rebel authority after civil war’.
89. Shesterinina, ‘Civil war as a social process’. On this episode of violence, see: Le Cam ‘Au Burkina Faso’.
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Jeremy S. Speight
Jeremy S. Speight is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His research agenda consists of two interrelated streams focusing on the production of political order in civil war and the post-conflict institutionalization of wartime rebel governance. His previous research has been published in African Affairs, Civil Wars, Afrique Contemporaine, the Canadian Journal of African Studies, Comparative Politics and Comparative Political Studies.