Once considered nationalists, many insurgent groups are now labeled as terrorists and thought to endanger not just their own people, but the world. As the unprecedented trends in political violence among insurgents have taken shape, and as hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to be displaced, brutalized, and killed,Inside Insurgencyprovides startling insights that help to explain the nature of insurgent behavior.
Claire Metelits draws from over 100 interviews with insurgent soldiers, commanders, government officials, scholars, and civilians in Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, Turkey, and Iraq, offering a new understanding of insurgent group behavior and providing compelling and intimate portraits of the SPLA, FARC, and PKK. The engaging narratives that emerge from her on-the-ground fieldwork provide incredibly valuable and accurate first-hand documentation of the tactics of some of the world’s most notorious insurgent groups.Inside Insurgencyoffers the reader a timely and intimate understanding of these movements, and explains the changing behavior of insurgent groups toward the civilians they claim to represent.
Preface
1 Insurgents and Civilian-targeted violence
2 rivals and the Logic of Insurgent violence
3 “The elephant Is Not Yet Dead”: The reform of the sPLA
4 From Jekyll to Hyde: The transformation of the FArC
5 Freedom Fighters or terrorists? The ongoing transformations of the Pkk
6 The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Active rivalry
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Metelit's lC'