How Insurgency Begins
Rebel Group Formation in Uganda and Beyond

Why do only some incipient rebel groups become viable challengers to governments? Only those that control local rumor networks survive.

Janet I. Lewis (Author)

9781108790475, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 September 2020

200 pages, 18 b/w illus. 3 maps
15.5 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.45 kg

'... its methodological intervention, conceptual work, and empirics make unique and valuable contributions to studies of state formation and violent conflict, initiating not one but several new areas of inquiry for scholars in the field.' Rebecca Tapscott, Comparative Politics

How and why do rebel groups initially form? Prevailing scholarship has attributed the emergence of armed rebellion to the explosion of pre-mobilized political or ethnic hostilities. However, this book finds both uncertainty and secrecy shrouding the start of insurgency in weak states. Examining why only some incipient armed rebellions succeed in becoming viable challengers to governments, How Insurgency Begins shows that rumors circulating in places where rebel groups form can influence civilians' perceptions of both rebels and the state. By revealing the connections between villagers' trusted network structures and local ethnic demography, Janet I. Lewis shows how ethnic networks facilitate the spread of pro-rebel rumors. This in-depth analysis of conflicts in Uganda and neighbouring states speaks to scholars and policymakers seeking to understand the motives and actions of those initiating armed rebellion, those witnessing the process in their community, and those trying to stop it.

Part I: Rethinking How Armed Conflicts Begin
1. Introduction
2. A theory of rebel group formation
Part II: Uganda and Beyond
3. Context and initial conditions
4. The rebels
5. Civilians
6. The state
Part III: Implications
7. Implications for scholarship and policy
Appendices
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Armed conflict [JPWS], Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB], Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], African history [HBJH], Research methods: general [GPS]