Armed Organizations and Political Elites in Civil Wars

Pathways to Power in Syria and Iraq
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-58566-6
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 514 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Civil Wars and Intra-State Conflict

This book analyses under what conditions, and with what developmental effects, armed organizations shift their ‘coercive profile’ during civil wars, with a focus on the recent conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The work begins with an operationalisation of the term ‘political settlement’, focusing on how power is organized in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and then uses this operationalization to analyse the political settlements of contemporary Syria and Iraq, including their breakdown and transformation during recent civil wars (of 2011-today in Syria and 2014-17 in Iraq). It subsequently examines why and how elite factions have used armed organizations in times of conflict. This approach links an understanding of the broad evolution of power relations at the national level with the specific effects of the use of armed organizations on such relations. It argues for a shift from assigning fixed labels to armed organizations during civil wars to studying their coercive profile in a dynamic fashion, i.e. how armed organizations behave in terms of their use of threats and coercive force. The book introduces five profiles of coercive behaviour that demonstrate how the same organization can behave very differently at various points in time. One of these, the ‘hybrid coercive profile’, fills a gap in the existing civil war typology of organized armed violence by opening up the possibility of elite factions deliberately combining collaborative and competitive modes of behaviour. As an evidence base, the book provides in-depth analysis of the origins, evolution and operations of four armed organizations that have acted under a hybrid coercive profile during the Syrian and Iraqi civil wars: the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defence Forces, the Eagles of the Whirlwind of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the Badr Organization. By connecting the concepts of political settlement and civil war, and applying them to specific armed organizations operating in Syria and Iraq, the book offers new insights into this nexus.

This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, conflict studies, Middle Eastern Studies and International Relations.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Reference, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Veen, Erwin van

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Terrorismus, Religiöser Fundamentalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  1. A Political Settlement Perspective on Civil War  2. Syria’s Civil War and Elite Options for Violence  3. The Syrian Kurdish People’s Defense Units  4. The Eagles of the Whirlwind  5. Iraq’s Political Settlement and Elite Options for Violence  6. The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga  7. From Badr Corps to Badr Organization and Beyond  8. Findings and Their Broader Relevance

Über Autor(innen)

Erwin van Veen is a senior research fellow and lead of the Middle East research group at the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute, the Netherlands.