Abstract
Why do insurgent victories in civil war sometimes produce states with strong civilian government control over their military forces – for example under the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in Zimbabwe or the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in Rwanda – but sometimes do not? Building coherent military command structures that are subordinate to executive government authority is critical for achieving stability and the rule of law in post-conflict societies. However, existing civil-military relations theories that emphasize factors such as economic development, ethnic homogeneity or ideological doctrines are unsatisfactory for explaining variation across states where former insurgent movements govern. To address this puzzle, my dissertation offers a novel institutional theory of civilian regime control in insurgent dominant states. My theory highlights how the wartime institutions that develop during insurgent warfare – such as joint decision-making bodies among politico-civilian and military elites and institutions of local insurgent governance – shape the civilian-military relationships that emerge when these groups take power. To test these arguments, my dissertation draws on archival, interview, and survey-based evidence from Zimbabwe and Cote d’Ivoire. By theorizing how the wartime experiences and decisions taken by insurgent organizations on their path to victory influence post-war systems of government authority over armed forces, this project contributes to our understanding of the causes of civil-military cohesion in conflict-affected states, while also providing insights on the links between armed conflict, state formation, and post-war political order.
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