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AbstractWhat explains the choice of means and methods of warfare by armed groups? Conversely, why would some groups choose not to use certain weapons? Beyond the legitimacy- and reputation-based explanations common in existing literature, this article highlights the role of tactical utility, inherent costs, and normative biases of specific means and methods in shaping these decisions. Through a combination of congruence analysis and comparative methods, the article examines why the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), while employing a wide range of brutal forms of violence, generally avoided using landmines, contrasting this restraint with the behavior of other Colombian armed groups. Although the lack of tactical utility seems to be the primary driver of the non-use of landmines, the costs and stigma associated with using mines influence how the AUC perceived their utility. The findings underscore the importance of context-specific factors in the decision-making processes of non-state armed groups and contribute to broader discussions on the disaggregation of violence in civil wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe role of ideology in civil wars is particularly contentious, especially when it comes to Jihadi insurgents. Ideology is one of these groups’ defining characteristic, which questions what happens when Jihadis’ ideological commitments contradicts their strategic interests. This article explores these tensions with a particular focus on the issue of foreign support for the Syrian insurgency after 2011. The article argues that ideology matters and has contributed to division and infighting between Syrian insurgents for most of the conflict. But this research also contends that armed groups – including Jihadis – can adapt their ideological positions in line with their strategic interests as long as they manage to implement such changes without jeopardizing their internal cohesion. This careful balance explains the operational strategies of numerous armed groups in competitive environments such as Syria’s. The article draws on extensive interviews with Syrian insurgents over the past few years, including leaders and commanders of Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra as it transformed into HTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research emphasizes social media's potential for citizens to express shared grievances. In active conflict, however, social media posts indicating political loyalties can pose severe risks to civilians. We develop a theory that explains how civilians modify their online behavior as part of efforts to improve their security during conflict. After major changes in territorial control, civilians should be more likely to post positive content, and more content that supports the winning side. We study social media behavior during and after the siege of Aleppo in November 2016. We match Aleppo‐based Twitter users with users from other parts of Syria and use large language models to analyze changes in online behavior after the regime's retaking of the city. Results show that users in Aleppo post more positive and pro‐Assad content, but only when self‐disclosing their location. The findings have important implications for our understanding of digital communication in civil conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the British Civil Wars, London suffered a severe energy shortage. By the mid-seventeenth century, the English capital was highly dependent on supplies of coal from the North-East of England. However, during the civil wars, the predominantly Parliamentarian city’s access to coal was restricted when the Royalists secured control of Newcastle and its coal reserves. The constriction of the coal supply of London caused an energy crisis in the capital, forcing the Parliamentarians to introduce price controls and seek alternative supplies of fuel. This article argues that ‘weaponisation of energy’ and ‘energy policy’ are appropriate terms to describe London’s coal supply in this period, given the clear parallels with modern energy policies and conflict. This article will further argue that the use of this term makes historians engage with the importance of energy even in premodern conflicts, and acknowledge that contemporaries were aware of its paramount strategic importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses four books that focus on the political legacies and effects of civil wars in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Colombia. The authors explore how civil wars impact state institutions and politics at the national and subnational levels in Latin America. They also examine the transnational factor of the international prohibitions on the drug trade and its influence on armed groups operating within and across states in the region. The books shed light on the challenges faced by Latin American states in dealing with armed groups involved in the drug trade and the implications for democracy, security, and justice in the region. [Extracted from the article]

The conflict in Afghanistan 2001–2021 pitched coalition forces into the midst of a civil war. Armed political rebellion of this sort presents practitioners with a deeply intricate problem; multiple, interdependent layers of conflict and competition creating an ever-shifting ecosystem of violent competition. But in their efforts to resolve the root-causes of political rebellion in Afghanistan, Western counterinsurgents unwittingly contributed a set of philosophical, constructionist and cognitive ingredients to the dynamics powering violence on the ground. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, this article explores aspects of the campaign in Helmand and Kandahar 2008–11 in order to better explore the intersection between COIN theory, COIN practice, and the layered complexities involved for stabilisation forces seeking to instrumentalise power and influence in another nation's internal conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author portrays the psychoanalytic therapy with a twelve-year-old refugee boy and his parents, prior to which the boy had been traumatised by the deaths of both his brothers in the civil war. In 2015 he had travelled with his father to Austria, where he was warmly received in a small community. The author examines how this child reacted to the traumatising experiences, as well as which resilience factors played a role in overcoming them. The psychoanalytic process is illuminated in a detailed analysis of the therapy sessions, which created a space for overcoming the helplessness, mourning the loss and furthering the integration process of the identity, disturbed after the traumatic experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic shocks, including shocks to commodity export prices, have often been related to civil conflict. However, the literature usually assumes that commodity prices have linear effects. In this paper, we hypothesize that negative and positive commodity export price shocks can have asymmetric effects: while negative shocks are likely to increase conflict, positive shocks can have a smaller conflict-reducing effect or even increase conflict. We test this hypothesis in a dataset for battle deaths during ongoing civil wars. Consistent with the hypothesis, negative price shocks increase battle deaths, but positive price shocks also have a positive effect. The positive effect is concentrated and becomes significant in countries with weak pre-conflict institutions that experience positive price shocks to fossil fuels. We conclude that a combination of institutional reforms, economic diversification, and price stabilization might reduce battle deaths in fuel-dependent countries with weak institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalation of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) into interstate wars has been studied extensively with opportunity and willingness frameworks. In this article, we conceptualize and operationalize proto-insurgencies as a civil war equivalent to MIDs. Just as most MIDs do not escalate into interstate war, most proto-insurgencies never make the key tactical transitions needed to produce the onset of civil war. We separately examine proto-insurgency formation and proto-insurgency escalation to onset. We find that proto-insurgency formation is associated with political persecution, such as denial of access to justice, regime corruption, and mid-range levels of repression. Our theoretical focus is on how state repressive violence creates diffusion effects that push proto-insurgencies toward the tactical transitions that enable the escalation to civil war. Proto-insurgency escalation to civil war onset is driven by high levels of state repressive violence directed against proto-insurgency and its area of origin. This leads to the dispersal of proto-insurgents and the displacement of surrounding populations, inducing the spread of state repression to a larger number of administrative units. This creates the foundation for guerrilla warfare and establishes the conditions for rebels to offer sanctuary to displaced persons in return for active support, marking the onset of civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost a million Rohingya refugees remain trapped in refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, more than six years after being driven from Myanmar. The stated policy of the international community remains voluntary repatriation. This paper lays out our argument that the narrative of repatriation is a myth, not a genuine possibility any time in the next decade or more. Our central argument is that full repatriation of the whole refugee population is completely impossible regardless of outcome of the civil war in Myanmar, probably ever, and even repatriation of a sizeable minority is speculative, reliant on either the Arakan Army winning clear territorial control or a democratic government coming to power that gains clear control over the military. Even in these best-case scenarios, we argue that the demographic pressure of some 1.2 million Rohingya potentially returning to Rakhine State would be so destabilising as to make it an impossibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ceasefire and peace agreements stipulate the disarmament and demobilization of pro-state armed groups involved in the conflict, yet few of these groups ever completely demobilize. This study seeks to explain the process of incomplete demobilization by advancing a theoretical argument that pro-state armed groups are least likely to disarm and demobilize when the monopoly on violence is fragmented, and when there is relative balance of capabilities and interests between the government and pro-state armed groups. Under these circumstances, both governments and pro-state armed groups may favor incomplete demobilization enabling them to pursue their strategic objectives. We draw on unique interview data with pro-state paramilitaries from Ukraine to empirically illustrate our theoretical expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a comparative approach to gendered legacies of civil war and militant women's post-war memory activism in Ireland and Spain, and highlights a shared practice of photographic memory-keeping as a means of constructing counter-narratives of war. It focuses specifically on the testimonial memoirs "Blaze Away with your Little Gun" (1968–69) by Siobhán and Mairead de Paor and Cárcel de Mujeres (Vol. 1 and 2, 1985) and Mujeres en la Resistencia (1968) by Tomasa Cuevas, which commemorated women's experiences of activism and imprisonment in the Irish Civil War and Spanish Civil War respectively. This article unpacks how militant women on the losing side of civil war navigated the gendered repression and enforced erasure of the post-war Irish Free State and Francoist dictatorship and uses the two case studies to demonstrate that women's photographic practices enabled them to contest national narratives of war. It thus highlights how women's testimonial photographic practices, the ways in which they created, re-defined, and circulated images within written memoirs, allowed them to reclaim agency over their experiences of activism and imprisonment and commemorate women who were otherwise erased from official remembrance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a problematic of the ordinary as it emerges in the poetical theology of an early poem of John Milton. This poem, Lycidas, has captured the attention of every major critic from the 18th century to the present, who has minutely examined its odd formal and generic character, its peculiar mix of personal grief and political outrage, and its role in Milton's own personal development at a particularly decisive moment in English history. Yet, despite this extensive interpretive history, 'the ordinary' has never become an extended object of critical analysis. This article accordingly seeks to uncover and examine the importance of a certain set of contemporaneous significations of the ordinary in Lycidas, which implicate the institutions of Church, state, and university in perhaps surprising ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rebel diplomacy in civil wars is an emerging research area, and we do not know the extent to which it contributes to the type of civil war termination. This article posits rebel diplomacy as the practices of communication and persuasion intended to generate external and internal pressures which make the government and rebel more amenable to each others' demands. The implication of this theoretical argument is that the government and rebel groups would be able to find compromises and settle civil wars in a negotiated peace agreement. Findings from the analysis of 136 civil wars since 1950 support the theoretical argument. This finding is robust in alternative model specification and after modelling the endogenous effect of factors that explain the rebel use of diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, building on the earlier research on procedural justice (PJ) and civil society inclusion, we assess the effectiveness of various civil society inclusion modalities based on their impact on durable peace (DP). A set of hypotheses concerning civil society inclusion is evaluated using the fifty-case peace agreement dataset assembled by Druckman and Wagner (2019). Their study showed that PJ was a key predictor of DP. We take their model as the base and add inclusion variables step by step using a hierarchical regression model. Results show that inclusive commissions (ICs) add significant explained variance to the prediction of DP. None of the other modalities add significant variance to the prediction. A possible explanation is that ICs ensure the continuation of civil society inclusion between the negotiation and implementation phases of a peace process. As well, they optimize breadth and depth in an inclusive negotiation process. The article concludes with discussions of next steps in the research and develops implications for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know that civil wars have negative and long-term consequences for public trust in state institutions. However, few studies have examined the post-peace challenges of rebuilding trust in state institutions. In this study, we utilise the case of Colombia to explore the impact of civil wars on the institutional trust of the police. We find that perspectives on abuse, punishment, and corruption are significant predictors of trust in the Colombian police. Further, we find that when we test all three phenomena together, perceptions of police abuse and experience with bribery are the key drivers of trust of police in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah, is not only an active military fort but also a site of historical significance. Established in 1862, it played a role in the Civil War and has a diverse history, including hosting social events and even baseball games with African American Buffalo Soldiers. During World War I and II, it held prisoners of war and became home to the 7th Bombardment Group. Managed by the University of Utah, the site offers a walking tour that explores its archaeological treasures. Although the museum is currently closed, alternative materials and artifacts are provided during the tour, and plans are underway to reopen the museum by the end of the year. With Salt Lake City hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics, Fort Douglas has the potential to showcase the city's history to a wider audience. [Extracted from the article]

What did it mean for poor and middling men and women to take up arms against their government? How did they negotiate competing claims for their participation in civil war and what consequences confronted them? This article analyses the crown's investigation of its opponents following the 1321–22 civil war, comparing its predecessor of the Montfortian civil war (1263–67), to examine how the king, justices and juries tackled these questions. It demonstrates how the crown rooted the summary conviction and execution of Thomas of Lancaster and other noble insurgents in common law procedure; then, at the King's Bench and a special inquiry in the Welsh Marches, re-framed treasonous offences to tackle non-noble insurgents; then, fearing a new uprising, instrumentalised the common law's machinery to gather military intelligence. The crown recognized the agency of subjects across society in civil war and juries were ideally placed to investigate it; they also weighed subjects' culpability, balancing obligation to the king against the mitigating realities of coerced participation in war. Thus, juries and the communities who informed their verdict were invited to engage with the ethical and legal dilemmas of civil war. This article thus presents a people's history of treason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amphibious landing of troops at Bonny during the Nigerian Civil War is often described as a landmark feat accomplished by the military of a modern Black African state. It was the first of five landings which along with the instituting of a naval blockade formed the basis of the encirclement and eventual defeat of secessionist Biafra. This article captures the transformation of an erstwhile civilian marine department into a naval force which endured sabotage and defection prior to successfully transporting, landing, and affording covering fire for the federal Third Infantry Division. The article explains the military and political objectives, and also reveals the pivotal role played in its planning and execution by James Rawe, an expatriate British naval officer who was a veteran of the Normandy landings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Africa Spectrum is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Akademik Hassasiyetler is the property of Huzeyfe Suleyman Arslan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociological Context / Sosyolojik Bağlam Dergisi is the property of Journal of Sociological Context and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This research seeks to highlight school partnerships as an approach to improving schools and halting the deterioration of their performance in an environment that has suffered from the consequences of conflict for more than a decade. Design/methodology/approach: The research used the qualitative method, and the data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 school leaders and teachers. Findings: The results showed the presence of positive attitudes toward inter-school partnerships and their perception of many benefits, the most prominent of which was increasing social cohesion in school and surrounding communities that suffer from divisions resulting from conflict. A set of obstacles includes legislative obstacles, a low degree of autonomy, low competency of school leaders, a lack of trust and incentives. Originality/value: This study proposes a range of solutions to address the challenges associated with building partnerships. The research emphasizes the significance the school-to-school partnerships and their positive role in improving the performance of schools in developing countries, especially in environments suffering from the consequences of civil wars and social divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville famously described the depth and breadth of voluntary association in the antebellum United States. Recent empirical research shows that de Tocqueville did not exaggerate. Between the founding of the republic in 1788 and the start of their Civil War in 1861, Americans voluntarily chartered over 23,000 business and over 15,000 nonprofit corporations across a wide swathe of activity. Contrary to the "state capacity" view, which holds that the weak state of early American governments rather ironically forced Americans to voluntarily associate to address social ills, the reverse is closer to the truth. In other words, Americans voluntarily associated to keep regulations relatively few and taxes relatively low. Americans today could revitalize their deeply divided republic by reinvigorating voluntarism, the non-mandated unilateral transfer of resources, making it once again the main mechanism for mitigating socioeconomic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fourth book of the Jewish Antiquities , Josephus describes the rebellion of Zambrias against the authority of Moses. The rebel leader gives an impassioned speech critiquing the Mosaic law, to which the lawgiver gives no answer. Josephus' willingness to compose speeches and to counter anti-Jewish calumnies makes this silence unexpected. To understand its possible implications, and with roles played by silence in classical literature as a background, this paper explores the meanings which unexpected silences can have throughout Josephus' works, particularly focusing on the association with secrecy, popular silence, and the end of an argument. The investigation finds an unsettling association with tyrannical action, which suggests a possible awareness of the link between lawgivers and tyrants in archaic Greek politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a theoretical perspective on analysing the State during transitions, defined as the shift from periods of conflict to peace attempts through negotiations with illegal armed groups, institutional reforms, and state practices. It becomes apparent that the State is neither uniform nor static but constantly shaping and reshaping. Transition reveals the State as a battleground, where conflicts arise over defining the new beginning or society. Hence, the suggested approach to studying the State in such contexts focuses on relational perspectives and the examination of local and everyday dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the historiography of the Russian Civil War, discussing the ongoing debates and different perspectives surrounding the conflict. It highlights recent publications by Russian authors that offer new insights based on archival sources. The article also mentions three specific studies that focus on different aspects of the war, including the role of antisemitic violence, the peasant resistance movement, and the struggle for independence in a specific region. These studies contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of the Russian Civil War. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses a little-known raid on Pollard, Alabama during the Civil War. The raid was carried out by a diverse force of Union soldiers, including Black regiments, and aimed to destroy Confederate stores and disrupt supply lines. The raid resulted in the burning of the town and reports of atrocities committed by both sides. The article sheds light on the contributions of Black soldiers in the Gulf South region, which have often been overlooked by historians. [Extracted from the article]

Peacekeeping is helpful in resolving civil wars, but there is little chance of peacekeeping operations or other international peace-building interventions for many conflicts. How do internal wars stabilize in the absence of meaningful international involvement? Two key factors, the government's political space for bargaining and the relative power of armed groups, help to explain when it is possible to reach either stable cooperation between states and armed groups or negotiated settlements. We analyze three conflict trajectories—"long-term limited cooperation" arrangements, state incorporation or disarmament, and ongoing conflict—to show that the paths to stabilization are often ethically fraught and empirically complicated but exist even when international involvement is off the table. We use quantitative and qualitative data to study the relationships between armed groups and governments in much of post-colonial South Asia, including during periods of little or no violence. Understanding these trajectories provides policymakers, analysts, and scholars with useful tools for identifying policy options and political trade-offs as they seek to reduce the human costs of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Peru's transition towards community mental health from 1980 to 2022. Using an approach from medical anthropology and related social sciences, we argue that the community mental health reform in Peru has been influenced and shaped by multiple sociohistorical and political processes such as the period of internal armed conflict, economic crises, and the adoption of neoliberal policies. This article is based on an analysis of the national guidelines and reports related to mental health, participant observation in a Community Mental Health Center and with residents of a district of Lima, and interviews with citizens, health providers, and mental health activists. The analysis of the national mental health guidelines shows how sociohistorical processes influence mental health policies. The ethnographic work complicates citizens' varying perceptions of the community mental health model and the process of psychiatric deinstitutionalization. Now that mental health care takes place in the community, our ethnographic analysis points to changes in different notions of madness, care, and mental health and illness. The mental health reform also generates opportunities, such as mental health activism and the potential inclusion of community actors, as well as the inclusion of people with mental health problems in the elaboration of their diagnoses and treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines US military reactions to violence during the Russian Civil War in the Far East (1918 - 1922). Paying close attention to US descriptions of anti-Bolshevik-perpetrated atrocities, it demonstrates that American military officers fell back on stereotypes of Russians and other ethnicities as having an "Asiatic" propensity for barbarism. This reasoning caused some American observers to misunderstand the dynamics of violence in the Far Eastern theatre. By relying on these accounts to describe the violence of the Russian Civil War, historians of the US intervention have at times perpetuated myths and misunderstandings, rather than exploring the relationship between perceptions and violence. This article thus shows how a critical examination of primary sources that also analyses various forms of violence can improve our understanding of the Russian Civil War in the Far East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Table of Contents" is from the International Journal of Military History & Historiography. It provides a list of articles and books related to various topics in military history. Some of the topics covered include artillery handbooks of the 16th century, US intervention in the Russian Civil War, Mao's version of "Manufacturing Consent," Franco-Ivorian military relations, the militarization of politics in Zimbabwe, and more. The document also includes bibliographical records of books on military strategy, wars, and conflicts from different time periods. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates possible sociopolitical reconciliatory mechanisms to garner support for peacemaking in conflict-torn societies. Building on the Kurdish question in Turkey, associated with a four-decade-long armed conflict that has spilled over into neighboring Syria and Iraq, we identify policies and framing that can attract support for a political solution to the conflict. We highlight the need for a sociopolitical reconciliatory approach that addresses both the hopes of the warring minority and the fears of the majority. The results from an original nationwide survey indicate that minority demands can initially be addressed through a 'soft settlement,' lying between individual and collective rights. Our results point to the need to relax the concept of negotiated settlement, which has become the most frequent approach to ending internal armed conflicts in the post-Cold War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The destruction of heritage in conflict has emerged as a key challenge to global security and the prospects of peace. In response, the international community has undertaken several large-scale heritage reconstruction projects on the assumption that they would foster development and promote cohesion. However, to date very little is understood about how local populations value their heritage, how they perceive its destruction, whether they view reconstruction as a priority, and the extent to which they support foreign efforts to rebuild. This article addresses this lacuna by focusing on the case study of Aleppo and documenting the results of an original public opinion survey of 1600 residents. The results hold several implications for heritage projects in Aleppo, namely that locals prefer that heritage reconstruction: not be privileged over security, development and peace; includes the rebuilding of their local religious sites as much as significant non-religious sites; transforms sites into more useful structures for the community; and they want domestic control and agency over the future of their heritage. The article concludes by noting that such findings hold important implications for heritage projects in other (post-)conflict contexts where mass heritage destruction has taken place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert de Ferrers III, the sixth earl of Derby, is generally considered an outlier in the events of the civil war in England between 1264 and 1266. His involvement in the rebellion centred on Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, has been widely interpreted as driven by self-interest and aggrandisement, defined by unorthodox levels of violence and lawlessness. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of Robert's involvement in the rebellion across the Midlands in 1264, and places the surviving evidence within its wider contexts. In doing so, it shows that Ferrers' activities during 1264 were much more aligned with the baronial faction's strategic interests than is generally understood, and his behaviour was far from unorthodox. Through this analysis, the paper also illuminates how the chronicler William Rishanger's influence among modern historians is due a correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When King Charles I was beheaded in 1649 it incited a series of events in the Reformed city of Geneva. The Civil Wars and Regicide uncovered the political and religious tensions within Geneva during the English Civil Wars. In Geneva, two important bodies, the Small Council of civil magistrates and the Company of Pastors jockeyed for an appropriate response from their diverse members. Additionally, the leaders of Geneva had to respond to English and Continental rumours that they were to blame for England's woes. Utilizing archival research, this article examines the transnational implications of the English Civil Wars and it shows that the Genevans had far from a unified view of the Civil Wars. Ultimately, the primary fear for the leaders in Geneva was not necessarily the death of a king, but instead that they would be associated with the worst aspects of the Radical Reformation: Anabaptism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with the legacy of the past has become a popular demand in postconflict and posttransition countries. However, the pursuit of truth can be a divisive issue that threatens rather than promotes understanding, particularly in divided societies. Would a minimalist truth satisfy the victim-centered right to know, without disturbing delicate balances in society? This article theorizes how different designs of truth commissions impact social outcomes, contrasting two ideal types: thin truth, which gives solely individual factual knowledge, and thick truth, which produces a public report and searches for a pattern of events. We look at the case of Spain, which long used a "policy of forgetting" to deal with the crimes of the Civil War and Franco dictatorship and where the politics of memory has become a partisan issue, and embed experimental treatments into a representative survey conducted in 2021. Our findings show that restricting truth brings no advantages, as the different designs have no significant impact on the highly polarized reactions. The research has implications for policy by showing how different truth commission formats (fail to) impact on reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ultimately unsuccessful 1935 campaign by Kentuckian Mary Darby Fitzhugh to erect a national memorial to honor the song "Dixie" and its Ohio-born composer, Daniel Decatur Emmett. Locating Fitzhugh's campaign in the larger effort by Confederate heritage groups to promote a southern perspective on the Civil War, it examines why and how proponents of the Lost Cause came to embrace both the song "Dixie" and blackface performer Dan Emmett as symbols of sectional reconciliation. The story of the "Dixie" memorial also highlights the work of Confederate heritage groups outside the South and the ways in which their efforts shaped the commemorative culture in Emmett's hometown of Mount Vernon, Ohio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies a mechanism through which multiparty mediation – mediation with multiple active third parties – has positive effects on civil war resolution. Balanced mediation efforts – those providing third parties biased toward both sides of the dispute – have unique advantages in generating peaceful outcomes. In particular, balanced efforts alleviate the commitment concerns faced by both the rebel group and the government, improving the prospects for peace. In this article, I develop a measure, Mediation balance, which aggregates the mediators' biases when multiple third parties are present. I also consider, both theoretically and empirically, how the number of mediators interacts with mediation balance to shape outcomes. I test my theory on civil war mediation attempts between 1989 and 2005, finding that balanced mediation efforts improve the probability of reaching an agreement. Furthermore, the strength of this effect is influenced by the number of mediators involved. Mediation balance also influences the probability the agreement halts the violence, albeit in unexpected ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleopatra VII, who struggle for the throne with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of Ptolemy XII, went on a cruise on the Nile River with her Roman ally Caesar, with whom she had personal and political rapprochement, immediately after the Battle of Alexandria, which emerged as a civil war. The couple visited the settlements, mineral resources, quarries, and trade centers in Upper Egypt and ended the cruise before reaching Aethiopia. The fact that the cruise, which is not mentioned in contemporary sources, is mentioned in the works of non-contemporary authors such as Suetonius, Appian, Athenaeus and Lucan has led to controversy, and this situation has brought along the views that defend/doubt that the cruise took place. The main focus of this study is the purpose, scope and political and strategic objectives, especially the discussions about the Nile cruise. The study, which evaluates archaeological data, literary sources and modern views together, reveals that the cruise, which we have no information about because it is not included in contemporary ancient sources, was a discovery journey with political goals rather than a romantic honeymoon trip, and that it included more than what is described in ancient sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive reparation is one of the main rights that victims have when they are affected by a victimizing event in the midst of an armed conflict, regardless of its nature. Colombia has experienced one of the bloodiest internal armed conflicts that has generated a high number of victims. Therefore, by means of the qualitative method with a descriptive approach, we will study whether comprehensive reparation in Colombia has been effective. To this end, an approach to the armed conflict in Colombia will be made. Subsequently, the term comprehensive reparation adopted in the Inter-American system will be reviewed and grounded in the Colombian case. The results show that the victims who have been repaired and those who are expected to be repaired by 2026 are not enough, which will become a revictimization for the victim framed in a denial of justice, which goes against their rights as a subject of special protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is often assumed that the core debates about nationalism were settled by modernist scholars already in the 1980s, there are reasons to question this theoretical 'consensus', especially because it fails to anticipate the wave of nationalist geopolitics that is currently sweeping through the world. Contemporary studies of nationalism typically refrain from conceptualising politics in spatial terms, while overstating states' ability to shape ethno‐national identities irrespective of their ethnic roots and offering little empirical validation. To overcome these limitations, it is useful to analyse how nationalism transforms the state, rather than the reverse. This article reports findings from an EU‐funded research project that uses historical maps covering borders of states and ethnic groups to show how nationalism causes increasing congruence between these borders and how a lack thereof makes conflict and border change more likely. This risk is further increased by 'restorative' narratives bemoaning supposedly lost independence and unity. Further research traces the spread of reactive nationalism through modernisation processes driven by railroad expansion until the early 20th century. Yet this does not mean that state partition offers the only, or the best, solution to nationality problems. Power sharing can pacify at least as well as ethno‐nationalist border change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Syrian uprising and subsequent civil war have been extensively studied with a predominant emphasis on sectarianism between the Sunni and Alawite sects. This narrow focus overlooks the profound influence of other religious and ethnic elements within Syrian society. This article aims to broaden the analytical lens by examining the position and attitudes of Christians in the Al‐Hasakah governorate regarding the Syrian uprising and opposition forces. The article addresses two key inquiries: first, the factors influencing Christians' position in Al‐Hasakah regarding the Syrian uprising, and second, the ramifications of these positions on intercommunal relationships in the region. The paper argues that the collective memory of fear experienced by Christians, manipulated by the Syrian regime, has contributed to the emergence of "sectarianism from below" and "sectarianism from above." The former reflects the construction of sectarian identities by Christians in response to discrimination and marginalization, while the latter pertains to influential institutions perpetuating sectarian identities and divisions. The findings highlight the complex interplay of factors shaping communal attitudes and relations during times of upheaval and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do negotiations occur in civil war? How does military intervention alter this process? While the existing literature presents models of the onset of negotiations – both mediated and unassisted – they are incomplete if they do not consider third-party states involved in the conflict prior to negotiations. I argue that military intervention impacts negotiation onset by adjusting barriers to negotiation through three pathways: the likelihood of military victory, the risk of signaling weakness, and the presence of additional veto players. I examine these mechanisms using logistic random effects models on a dataset of African civil wars. An extension of the argument addresses how expectations of intervention shape conflict behavior. Rebel-supporting interventions, interventions with independent interests, and asymmetric interventions lead to an increase in the likelihood of negotiations occurring. Models controlling for expectations of intervention also suggest that third parties can impact belligerents' behavior through both expectations and follow-through. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wartime violence and authoritarian repression against civilians take various forms. Past research has explored the causes and consequences of violence, but no previous work simultaneously assessed the long-term effects of different types of violence on political identities. This paper contends that indiscriminate attacks can reinforce ingroup identity, whereas the role of civilian agency in selective violence may have a detrimental impact. Equipped with original data capturing municipality-level exposure to both selective and indiscriminate violence during the Spanish civil war (1936–1939) in Biscay (Basque Country), this study examines its legacy on voting behavior (1983–2015). Results indicate that fascist airstrikes increased Basque nationalism while selective violence diminished the popularity of Basque parties. Individual and community-level evidence suggests that airstrikes fostered the intergenerational transmission of political attitudes. Violence can boost national identities, but it can also erode them: it depends on the type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is written in the wake of Guatemala's thirty-six-year civil war, grounded in the Cold War–Doctrine of National Security which understood Indigenous people as "internal enemy." People who joined social movements were also seeking security: bodily integrity, land, a living wage. For Indigenous people, it was security to be who they are: speaking their languages, practicing their spirituality and lifeways. Before, during, and after the war, hydroelectric projects have been identified with security, given their promises of light and progress. I explore how "scripts" like Race, The State, Citizenship, and The Plantation are inscribed into such objects and how obdurate such prescriptions are. Yet Akrich says that users may define quite different roles of their own. If this happens the objects remain a chimera (p. 208). Through several moments over the last seventy years in Guatemala, I show how various forms of "security"—bodily, communal, productive, national, and financial—are at stake and how hydroelectrics are always under contestation, always chimera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do non-state armed groups form in intra-state armed conflicts? Researchers have started to disaggregate armed groups, but we still know little about how armed groups emerge in different ways. Drawing on the literature on social movements, civil wars, and civil–military relations, we generate a typology of 'movement', 'insurgent', and 'state splinter' origins of armed groups. We argue that fundamentally different dynamics of conflict shape armed group origins in the context of broad-based mobilisation, peripheral challenges to the state, and intra-regime fragmentation. Armed groups that emerge in these contexts in general differ in their initial membership and leadership, the basic organisational dimensions that we focus on. We demonstrate the utility of our typology by mapping different origins of armed groups onto existing cross-national data and charting type narratives in illustrative cases. This discussion advances recent efforts to understand the importance of armed group emergence for outcomes of interest to conflict scholars by moving beyond either separate types of origins or highly disaggregated organisational analyses to broader conflict dynamics through which armed groups form, with implications for how these groups act. Future research should consider different origins which we identify in comparison through an in-depth analysis of armed groups' complex histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores intimacy and gendered practices in insurgent warfare, with special reference to the conflict in Nepal between 1996 and 2006. Drawing on fieldwork, we argue that women's experiences of and during the insurgency highlight how they engaged with bodily concerns and care, reproductive, and healing practices while serving revolutionary causes. By drawing attention to these particular issues, the article contends that most of the existing literature on conflict fails to account for the gendered nuances and micro-politics of care in violent contexts. It shows how healthcare provisions have been restricted to informal and private spaces due to attacks against healthcare and illustrates the long-term impacts of being unable to access public healthcare due to insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the intersectional dimensions of gendered trauma and its implications for civil war studies, emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding of how women's experiences in war are represented and analyzed. It argues for an intersectional approach that integrates feminist, queer, postcolonial, and decolonial perspectives to reframe trauma and envision generative utopias, while also critiquing traditional narratives of war through women's storytelling.

Constituting a central historical link between war and long-term fiscal capacity, war taxes are generally perceived to be a thing of the past. This article corrects the picture by presenting new, global data on war taxes, 68 in total, introduced between 1960 and 2020. Far from having been abandoned, war taxes have remained a crucial war-time fiscal instrument, leaving long-term imprints on tax systems across the contemporary world. Serving the twin imperatives of revenue maximisation and generation of taxpayer consent, I argue that the use of war taxes is conditioned by the relative intensity and the perceived legitimacy of a war, be it civil or inter-state. The proposed logic aligns with case evidence, further supported by macro-quantitative analysis. The results speak to the large literature on war and state-building, challenge the standard disintegrative view of civil wars, and provide new empirical insights into the political economy of conflict-affected countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]