Peace Agreements and Former Rebel Participation in Counterinsurgency

• In Event: How to End a Civil War?

Abstract

While peace agreements are traditionally studied as mechanisms for resolving violent conflict, this paper argues many peace agreements are best understood as counterinsurgency tactics against excluded rebel groups. In conflicts as diverse as Angola, the Philippines, Burundi, and Tajikistan, rebel groups signed peace agreements that subsequently lead to the group’s participation in government counterinsurgency efforts against other rebel groups, often rebel groups that are co-ethnics or co-ideologs. Expanding current research on rebel on rebel violence, this paper develops an original theory linking multiparty conflict dynamics and peace agreement design with rebel group participation in military offensives, as either paramilitary groups or nominal members of governments’ national armed forces. To test this theory, the paper uses a new dataset that measures rebel on rebel violence after a group has agreed to a ceasefire or peace agreement with the state.

Author

• Caroline Brandt, Uppsala University