From Recruitment to Reintegration: Communities and Ex-combatants in Post-Conflict Liberia

Abstract

In disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes, return to home communities is a normative given, around which reinsertion and reintegration support is planned. Yet such an approach is oblivious of pre-war social dynamics of rebel recruitment and civilian experiences of rebel abuse and coercion. These manifest as important sources of social tension between communities and combatants in the post-war period and complicate reintegration. This research shows that the ‘recruitment–reintegration’ nexus offers a key variable for explaining tensions between civilian communities and ex-combatants in post-conflict Liberia, and could be leveraged in future efforts to improve DDR programmes.