Rebel Forces Research Articles

Survival Strategies and Non-Aggression Pacts Between the Guardia Civil and the Republican Guerrilla in Spain's Irregular War, 1936–1952

Existing literature on the anti-Francoist guerrilla has focused on the origins, development and decline of guerrilla parties. However, many aspects of the irregular war of 1936–1952 that pitted rebel forces, and later the Francoist dictatorship, against Republican resistance fighters remain unexplored. Historians have often cited civil guards as sources on killings and torture that took place in spaces of anti-guerrilla warfare, and the violence employed by the guerrilla has also been the subject of a significant amount of research. In contrast, this article looks at how civil guards deployed in the irregular war and guerrilla fighters not only interacted peacefully, but in fact came to establish non-aggression pacts as a survival strategy. The existence of such agreements was known not only to the men on both sides, but also to the civilian population and the dictatorship itself.

«В Коауиле провозглашается коммунизм». Эпизод из истории Мексиканской революции (1912 г.)

The article deals with a little-known and little-studied episode from the history of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, the proclamation of communism by anarchist guerrillas in the state of Coahuila in 1912. A brief but vivid history of the guerrillas, organized by the Magonists from the Mexican Lib-eral Party (PLM) at one of the key moments of the revolution, is considered in the context of the general role of the anar-chist movement at various stages of the revolution in Mexico, of evolution of its ideology, strategy and tactics. An attempt has been made to assess the significance of the events under consideration for the development of the anarchist movement in the world. PLM, led by brothers Riсardo and Enrique Flo-res Magon, was in 1906-1908 the first political force that launched a rebel movement against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, and in 1910-1911 made a significant contribu-tion to the overthrow of the regime. However, after this, the leadership of the Mexican Liberal Party officially switched to the position of anarchism, and its supporters tried to organize a guerrilla movement with the aim of carrying out a social revolution in Mexico. Although the PLM rebel forces were crushed by superior government forces in 1912, and many of their members were killed, the proclamation of anarchist communism by a group of guerrillas on February 9, 1912 in the Mexican state of Coahuila, one of the traditional areas of influence of the Magonists, was the first act of this kind in the history of world anarchist movement and served as an example for anarchists in other countries.

SYRIA: PROXY WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The conflict in Syria quickly escalated into a complex and prolonged civil war where states outside the conflict fueled rebel groups to fight. The onset of multiple proxy wars befell Syria. Proxy war happens when a ruler of a state devises and facilitates the provision of support to a rebel group that is engaged in carrying out violent activities in another state. Thus, an external state can influence the outcome of a civil war without having to bear the heavy costs of sending its army forces. States that wage proxy wars risk a potential conflict escalation, and gamble with provoking retaliation by either the offending state or its allies. Furthermore, inadvertent conse quences of backing rebel forces are also possible such as international condemnation. So, why does a state choose to form a relationship with a proxy group, instead of intervening directly? Why invest money and military power in a third party that could lead to a prolonged conflict? The analysis highlights that the political survival of regimes in the Middle East caused leaders to support rebel groups in Syria. I present a causal mechanism that is based on transnational threats to explain the phenomenon of proxy war in the Syrian civil war. Keywords: Syria, proxy war, Middle East, qualitative analysis, foreign policy.

김삿갓 한시의 정본화와 동시(東詩)에 대하여

Kimsatgat was a poet who worked in the late Cho Seon dynasty. His original name is Kim Byoung Yeon(金炳淵1807-1863) and he was alternatively called Kim Lib(金笠) which was another nickname. He always wore a bamboo hat, which led him to be called with the alternative nickname. He was born as a descendant of An Dong(安東) Kim Si(金氏)who was a family in power those days. However, his family perished as his grandfather, Kim Yik Soon (金益淳, ? - 1812) surrendered to the rebel forces during Hong Gyoung Rae's revolt (in 1811). It is now time for a comprehensive review of Kimsatgat's research, including expanding sources, determining authenticity, and translating Hanxi into foreign languages. Based on these issues, this article focuses on the issue of expanding new sources for Kimsatgat. For this purpose, I believe that a new source is needed. In other words, it is necessary to more actively examine the manuscript poetry collections that remained at the time of Kimsatgat in the 19th century or near the time of his death to create a new ‘canonization of Kimsatgat's poetry’. With this in mind, this paper discusses some of the work that has been done and future tasks. I would like to refer to the works known as guache poetry in a more comprehensive sense as synchronized poetry. It is believed that this canon could be expanded in the future to include a significant number of new works by Kimsatgat. As an example of such a work, I will describe a new work by Kimsatgat about the Red Wall[赤壁]. There are currently eight poems about red walls by KimSatgat. Among them, we took a closer look at one of them, ｢將遊赤壁歎有客無酒｣. In order to create a complete anthology of Kimsatgat's poetry, I would like to point out that it is absolutely essential to expand the data of Dongsi[東詩l.

When State-Endorsed Cinema Meets Marvel: A Study of Wolf Warrior II’s Global Superhero Vernacular

Chinese state-endorsed films have transformed in the past decade. These films make up the “new mainstream”, a genre defined by its ability to match strides with Hollywood commercial cinema. But, what exactly comprises Hollywood’s impact on official Chinese media? How does it manifest onscreen? Exploring the relationship between state-endorsed blockbusters and Hollywood, this article analyzes a pioneer of the “new mainstream”, Wolf Warrior II (2017). This film stands out as the inaugural collaboration between Chinese media conglomerates and Marvel Cinematic Universe directors. From this collaboration emerges the film’s protagonist, Leng Feng, an ex-soldier who saves civilians from rebel forces in Africa. As Leng enacts justice at home and abroad, however, affective portrayals of his feats foreground ambiguity over coherence and unresolvable impulses over a singular agendum. These melodramatic sites of contradiction, I argue, culminate in the film’s own “global superhero vernacular”. Such a vernacular aligns with transnationally circulating serial franchise logics, pushing the film’s connection with Marvel beyond local–global and state–market binaries. Ultimately, my analysis complicates the smooth thread that links together the superhuman individual, nationalist sovereign power, and international order, thereby re-evaluating state-endorsed cinema’s role within Chinese media cultures and social fields.

Relative strength and foreign direct investment in civil conflicts

AbstractWhat factors contribute to the differences in foreign direct investment (FDI) levels in environments characterized as high risk? While research shows that armed conflict influences foreign investment decisions, it remains unclear how conflict dynamics, specifically the relative power capabilities of warring parties, affect FDI. This study explores the effects of rebel strength relative to government forces on FDI. We argue that there is a reduction in foreign investments in civil conflict countries as rebels gain a military advantage relative to the government. Stronger insurgents send a signal that the government is losing its strength in the conflict, creating uncertainty regarding conflict outcomes and posing economic and security risks for investors. To avoid facing economic and property losses due to increasing rebel strength, investors are incentivized to decrease their investment in the conflict state. Using data on insurgent troop size relative to government forces and FDI, our findings show that higher military capabilities of rebel forces relative to the government are associated with less FDI inflows in conflict-affected countries.

Fair-Weather Abusers? Civil War Dynamics and the Onset of State-Sponsored Violence

Abstract Despite decades of rigorous research on the use of government-sponsored violence in armed conflicts, there remains significant uncertainty as to when and where leaders choose to target civilians in war. We argue that the variation in the use of state repression is explained in part by how soldiers perceive battlefield gains by rebel forces. Specifically, while strong opposition forces are often a necessary condition for elites convincing agents to engage in state-sponsored brutality, this is modified by the soldiers’ beliefs surrounding the outcome of the war. If government soldiers believe that rebels are likely to win the war, we posit that they will likely shirk orders to target civilians, fearing post-war accountability. We test this argument by examining subnational variation in battlefield dynamics and the use of government one-sided violence from 1992 to 2010.

The disarmament of anarchists in the provinces of the Central Chernozem region in the spring of 1918 (based on the materials of the Orel and Voronezh provinces).

The article examines the confrontation of the armed anarchist detachments of the "Black Guard" with the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1918. The causes and features of the emergence of anarchist detachments, the position of anarchists in the political arena of the country in 1917 - early 1918 are illustrated. The author gives an assessment of some early Soviet studies on "anarchist uprisings" in the provinces of the Central Chernozem region. After the February and October revolutions of 1917, anarchism in Russia embarked on a new path of development, which was characterized by attempts to unite and create a single combat force to protect the "revolutionary gains" from the interventionists and White Guard forces. The object of the study is the history of the anarchist movement in the Central Chernozem region during the establishment of Soviet power. The subject of the study is the armed actions of anarchists against the authorities in Orel and Voronezh in March-April 1918. The methodological basis is the consideration of historical phenomena and their interrelations in the context of the studied time (the principle of historicism). A comparative historical method was used to establish the similarities and distinctive features of the armed actions of anarchists in Orel and Voronezh. The article attempts to comprehensively study the history of the anarchist movement in the Central Black Earth region. The author analyzes only a small fragment of this topic. The spring of 1918 was a period of the defeat of anarchist detachments and organizations throughout Russia, these processes took place on the territory of the Central Chernozem region. Based on the works of his predecessors and memoir sources, the features of the defeat of the anarchist detachments in Orel and Voronezh are analyzed. During the analysis, it was possible to demonstrate that the anarchists were only part of the rebel forces, consisting of detachments arriving from the Ukrainian front, dissatisfied with the supply. Some Soviet authors often saw in these speeches a "Socialist-Revolutionary" conspiracy" or assigned the anarchists a leading role, making them the main instigators of uprisings. Which, according to the author, is an erroneous position.

African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces by Emizet F. Kisangani and Jeffrey Pickering

It is difficult to overstate the significance of understanding interstate military interventions in Africa, given interventions’ prevalence and the continent's demographic, economic, geopolitical, and security importance. In their theoretically and empirically rich African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces, Kisangani and Pickering present an ambitious and groundbreaking work focusing on the distinct nature of military interventions in Africa. In African Interventions, the authors conceptualize interstate military interventions as moving national troops or forces into another country to achieve various objectives. Other types of state support extended to a government or rebel group, such as providing funding or equipment and covert support, are excluded from this conceptualization. The concentration on interstate military interventions also excludes actions taken by intergovernmental organizations, although the authors occasionally side note some intergovernmental organization actions by the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations within the broader narrative. Theoretically, the authors uniquely combine classic approaches to international relations with more recent civil war and intervention literature. The Westphalian understanding of sovereignty and border fixity damaged postcolonial African states in many ways. Starting from this historical reality, the authors lay out three theories that shape the causes of intervention in Africa. First, they apply classic diversionary theories of war to military intervention. They argue that superpowers, European colonial states, and African states are equally predisposed to using military intervention when they suffer from economic and political unrest. Border fixity renders military interventions a low-cost distraction for the domestic audience because it almost removes the existential threat a state may pose to another state.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake: The Importance of Providing a Direct Cross-border Support.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in southern Turkey on February 6, 2023, has resulted in over 40,000 and 5,000 confirmed deaths in Turkey and Syria, respectively, including substantial infrastructure damage. While Turkey has received assistance from various countries and international organizations, the level of support Syria has received remains unclear. The Assad regime has demanded that aid be sent to the capital Damascus, but this may hinder the delivery of assistance to the areas most severely affected by the earthquake because the affected regions were mainly controlled by rebel forces. One of the biggest challenges in providing aid is accessing the affected region, as the earthquake occurred close to the border between Syria and Turkey, where roads and other infrastructure are poorly constructed. Furthermore, the northwest area of Syria shelters many internally displaced people, and more than 50% of medical facilities are not functioning due to the ongoing conflict, making the situation more hazardous. In light of the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake, securing direct support routes and dispatching medical personnel to the affected areas is crucial for a gradual recovery from the disaster. Therefore, it is essential for the international community, including Japan, to negotiate with the Assad regime to expand direct support routes and provide support for the dispatch of medical personnel who will remain and work in the affected areas. Humanitarian assistance and political issues should be kept separate to avoid further hindrances to aid delivery.

Picturing Political Power: Eighteenth-Century Korean Portraits in San Francisco's Asian Art Museum

Picturing Political Power: Eighteenth-Century Korean Portraits in San Francisco's Asian Art Museum

Casting a shadow over war zones? Hard truths about the ICC’s efforts to deter wartime atrocities

Twenty years after the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) entered into force, the ICC’s role in preventing atrocity crimes remains controversial, with skeptics arguing that it is unrealistic, pessimists that it overlooks the potential of the Court to escalate conflicts, and optimists contending that it can work for both government and rebel leaders. I argue that during civil wars the ICC is only likely to deter rebel forces, given that Court officials are likely to have an easier time pursuing their leaders should they commit atrocity crimes. This article systematically evaluates these competing claims by providing the most extended look yet at the ICC’s record in African civil wars, the primary focus of the Court’s efforts to date. I find that existing perspectives do not tell the full story of the ICC’s impact in war zones. The results suggest that the ICC has failed to deter African government forces. However, I uncover highly suggestive evidence that the more actions the ICC takes to pursue suspected war criminals during ongoing conflicts, the more likely it is to deter rebels. Notably, most of these ICC actions have targeted rebels. Importantly, I find no indication that the ICC is associated with increased civilian killings by either government or rebel forces. With the permanent ICC, the shadow of criminal prosecution now extends to modern-day conflicts. This study helps to broaden our understanding of how and when the ICC might contribute to deterrence.

African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces. By Emizet F. Kisangani and Jeffrey Pickering. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 292p. $84.99 cloth, $29.99 paper.

African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces. By Emizet F. Kisangani and Jeffrey Pickering. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 292p. 29.99 paper. - Volume 20 Issue 3

Remaining behind in the community: Rebel service provision and internal (non-)displacement of civilians in the former FATA, Pakistan

It is common during a civil war that a government’s counterinsurgency operations result in internally displaced persons seeking refuge from the violence by leaving their communities. However, many civilians alternatively choose to stay in their homes and seek accommodation from the rebels. It is, therefore, puzzling that in a civil war situation when rebel cadres often cannot protect civilians, civilians would remain in their communities. This article argues that the wartime provision of public services motivates civilians to stay with the rebel group because it demonstrates the group’s capability for and commitment to developing civilians’ welfare and livelihoods. This argument offers insight into an unanswered question in the literature regarding internal displacement in a civil war: Why do some civilians, when facing protection issues in rebel-held areas, choose to stay, while others opt to leave? Using novel survey data collected over two phases from the former Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) in Pakistan, a two-step Bayesian propensity score analysis reveals that the civilians who received rebel services are less likely to leave their places of residence. Civilians would pursue long-term goals during the crossfire between the government and rebel forces; wartime provisions of public services allow civilians to seriously consider the possibility of improving their lives.

元代 滿洲지역의 주요 교통로와 중심 거점

Yuan Dynasty, the first empire that put the entire Manchuria region under its control concentrated the whole power in maintaining the partial traffic routes during Liao Dynasty and Jin Dynasty into five major traffic routes. As it organically connected the entire Manchuria region through this, the control and development of Manchuria became in earnest by Yuan. Given that the general functions of posts were the movements of the military and munitions, the smooth delivery of written orders, and tax collection, Yuan Dynasty achieved satisfactory results in the Manchuria region. Especially, through the posts in the Manchuria region, it was possible to deter the Eastern Feudal Lords’ movement to the south to a considerable extent and greatly improve the central government control. Hampyeong located on the central road of Manchuria acted as a strategic base for both Yuan Dynasty and rebel forces. Yuan Dynasty that captured Hampyeong at the end of fierce fighting began to establish a post here in order in 1289 for the procurement of military supplies for the grown occupation forces and the reinforcement of control over Manchurians. It is the largest transportation hub in the Manchuria region as the central axis connecting four routes. Some sections of the northwest road of Manchuria starting from Sangju was a kind of Shuizhan (Water station), all of which were connected as canals passing through the mainstream and branches of Songhua River, which served as an express route to Manchuria during the Yuan Dynasty. As many communication obstacles disappeared thanks to the operation of the post, the economic and cultural exchanges of Dadu with Mongolia and the Manchuria region were revitalized, which served as a momentum to advance the development of Manchuria.

Mass Dissimulation in the Syrian Civil War

Why do civilians falsify their loyalties in civil wars? Government and rebel forces often seek popular collaboration for their wartime efforts, but civilian victimization encourages dissimulation as people seek safety when everyone’s loyalties are suspect. This article uses a list experiment embedded in two surveys of displaced Syrians in Lebanon, to examine popular support for the two most brutal belligerents in the Syrian civil war: the incumbent regime and jihadi rebels. These data reveal systematic dissimulation across the political spectrum as different constituencies misrepresent themselves in different ways. The list experiment demonstrates large overstatements of support for the incumbent and smaller understatements of support for the jihadis, with misrepresentation concentrating among self-declared government and rebel sympathizers, respectively. It also reveals that jihadi support is so sensitive that it breaks the list experiment among nonrebels, whose nonsense answers indicate the desire to avoid suspicion of harboring extremist sympathies.

African interventions: state militaries, foreign powers, and rebel forces

African interventions: state militaries, foreign powers, and rebel forces

British Quaker Aid to Spanish Republican Exiles in Concentration Camps in the South of France (1939–1940)

When a failed military coup provoked civil war in Spain in July 1936, British Quakers were among the first t respond to the tremendous need for humanitarian aid among the civilian population. They distributed food and clothing, set up canteens and hospitals, provided schooling and workshops, and organized the evacuation of children from war zones. Then, in January 1939, when the Spanish Republic finally succumbed to the might of the rebel forces, the Quakers accompanied thousands of refugees in their flight towards the French border. This became known as ‘la retirada’ (the Retreat). Once in French territory, the refugees were herded into improvised internment camps. These were simply vast open spaces on the beaches encircled by barbed wire, with no shelter, no latrines and barely any food. Quakers were the first to obtain permits to access the camps in order to alleviate the suffering and deprivation found there. They distributed not only the most basic aid such as food and clothing, but also pencils and notebooks, as well as tools and materials of all kinds to work with. Thus, in characteristic fashion, they provided people with the means by which they could help themselves.

Here for the Right Reasons: The Selection of Women as Peace Delegates

AbstractSince the passing of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security more than two decades ago, there has been a global push to bolster the inclusion of women in these processes. When women are selected into peace delegations for the wrong reasons, they—like men—can hinder or stall progress. Yet, very little work has analyzed which women are included in peace processes, how they are selected, why they are selected, and how their individual experiences influence both their behavior and the outcomes of those processes. We identify four selection criteria used to select participants in negotiations: (1) reliability as assessed through either connections to elites or ideological purity; (2) qualifications such as experience in the armed forces, rebel forces, civil society, or academia; (3) personal appeal or ability to elicit sympathy based on factors such as victimhood, attractiveness, youth, or demographics; and (4) selection by a third party whose strength and size have allowed it to negotiate representation in the process. It is likely that in many cases, multiple motives and selection criteria are at play in the selection of individual women (or men). We consider how gender impacts the implementation of these criteria, drawing on a variety of peace processes, but especially the Havana Peace Talks between the Colombian government and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios Colombianos–Ejército del Pueblo. This framework sets the foundation for the development of three research agendas: the first relating to which women get a seat at the table, the second to how the individual backgrounds of the women selected into the peace process influence outcomes, and the third to issues of intersectionality and representation.

LIBYA: ARMS PROLIFERATION AND ARMED GROUPS. THE LIBYAN CONFLICT REVISED

The study critically analyses the effects of the Libyan arms proliferation, with a focus on the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the region. It traces the proliferation of arms occasioned by the Civil War in Libya and establishes an empirical link to some of the regional security challenges to the proliferation. Relevant theoretical perspectives, such as the Security Dilemma and the Security Complex Theory, are adopted to explain the resulting effects of the proliferation such as the increased deadly violence of the rebel forces in the region and the neighboring Middle East region. Innovative arms control has been presented as the opportunity for the region to address the security challenges which are quickly evolving into a proliferation of advanced sophisticated weapons, some of them in the rebel-controlled territories. The study concludes that the regional security challenges partly originate from the Libyan arms proliferation which have also worsened security challenges in different parts of the world. Keywords: Arms proliferation, Security Dilemma, Libya, Regional Security Complex, arms control, Disarmament, Demobilization and Re-integration.