Transnational Dynamics of Civil War

Combining innovative theory with detailed case studies, this book offers a novel account of the border-crossing processes of civil war.

Jeffrey T. Checkel (Edited by)

9781107025530, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 January 2013

324 pages, 3 b/w illus. 8 tables
23.1 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

'With more than half of all post-1945 civil wars spilling across state borders, this new volume offers a welcome introduction into the often overlooked transnational dynamics of 'local' wars. Taken as a whole, these chapters also provide compelling evidence for the importance of qualitative process-tracing that moves beyond just-so stories to the much tougher challenge of rigorously testing the mechanisms that underpin our explanations of civil war dynamics.' Jason Lyall, Yale University

Civil wars are the dominant form of violence in the contemporary international system, yet they are anything but local affairs. This book explores the border-crossing features of such wars by bringing together insights from international relations theory, sociology, and transnational politics with a rich comparative-quantitative literature. It highlights the causal mechanisms - framing, resource mobilization, socialization, among others - that link the international and transnational to the local, emphasizing the methods required to measure them. Contributors examine specific mechanisms leading to particular outcomes in civil conflicts ranging from Chechnya, to Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Turkey. Transnational Dynamics of Civil War thus provides a significant contribution to debates motivating the broader move to mechanism-based forms of explanation, and will engage students and researchers of international relations, comparative politics, and conflict processes.

Part I. Civil War: Mobilizing across Borders: 1. Transnational dynamics of civil war Jeffrey T. Checkel
Part II. Transnationalized Civil War: 2. Copying and learning from outsiders? Assessing diffusion from transnational insurgents in the Chechen wars Kristin M. Bakke
3. Mechanisms of diaspora mobilization and the transnationalization of civil war Fiona B. Adamson
4. Refugee militancy in exile and upon return in Afghanistan and Rwanda Kristian Berg Harpviken and Sarah Kenyon Lischer
5. Rebels without a cause? Transnational diffusion and the Lord's Resistance Army, 1986–2011 Hans Peter Schmitz
6. Transnational advocacy networks, rebel groups, and demobilization of child soldiers in Sudan Stephan Hamberg
7. Conflict diffusion via social identities: entrepreneurship and adaptation Martin Austvoll Nome and Nils B. Weidmann
Part III. Theory, Mechanisms, and the Study of Civil War: 8. Causal mechanisms and typological theories in the study of civil conflict Andrew Bennett
9. Transnational dynamics of civil war: where do we go from here? Elisabeth Jean Wood.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB]