Good Rebel Governance
Revolutionary Politics and Western Intervention in Syria

Through fieldwork centering Syrian voices, this book explores wartime governing authority and the possibilities and limits of Western intervention therein.

Dipali Mukhopadhyay (Author), Kimberly Howe (Author)

9781108478540, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 June 2023

185 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

'The book has two contributions to rebel governance and foreign intervention literature. First, the book shows how non-material ties during conflicts impact local authorities and how coercion and capital are not enough to create and uphold them. Foreign intervention created good governance, but remained an attempt to build a credible counter-state. Second, the novel data-gathering methods give valuable insights into Western intervention and its effects on the ground. The observations are important beyond academic audience; policy makers and practitioners working in other conflicts can learn from the book's findings.' Tiina Hyyppa, International Studies Review

When a revolutionary uprising erupted in Syria during the spring of 2011, pockets of local resistance and the nascent institutions therein transformed into clusters of rudimentary participatory politics and service delivery. Despite the collective fatigue induced by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States and its allies embarked on an effort to encourage liberal, democratic politics amid the Syrian conflict. As a result, the project of 'good rebel governance' became the latest attempt at Western democracy promotion. This book moves the scholarship on insurgent rule forward by considering how governing authority arises and evolves during violent conflict, and whether particular institutions of insurgent rule can be cultivated through foreign intervention. In so doing, the book theorizes not only about the nature of authoritative rebel governance but also tests the long-standing precepts that have undergirded Western promotion of democracy abroad.

1. Introduction
2. The good governance bazaar
3. Reconceptualizing rebel governance
4. Studying Syria 'From the Verandah'
5. Raqqa's caliphal social contract
6. Saraqeb's limited access order
7. Darayya's fervent enclave
8. Aleppo city's republican guild
9. The Syrian interim government as 'Floating' counter-state
10. Revolutionary possibilities and international imaginings.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]