"New" and "Old" Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction? Author(s): Stathis N. Kalyvas Source: World Politics, Vol.

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Research Note

"NEW" AND "OLD" CIVIL WARS A Valid Distinction?

By STATHISN. KALYVAS*

decline of interstate armed conflict and perceived rise in the THE

frequency of civil wars contributed on ethnic since Europe2?have interest focuses to a new wave the end of the cold war1?especially in of interest in civil wars.3 This

as a source of conflict and competition widely war era ("new" civil wars) as funda of the post-cold regards different from their predecessors ("old" civil wars); "new" civil mentally wars are as criminal, rather than political, distinguished phenomena. civil wars

Since the issue of ethnic competition has been effectively tackled by

the distinction between research,4 this article instead challenges to see funda "new" and "old" civil wars by arguing that the tendency them is based on an uncritical mental differences between of adoption in a double mischaracterization. and labels grounded On the categories one hand, information about recent or ongoing wars is typically incom and biased; on the other hand, historical research on earlier wars plete recent

tends to be disregarded. This is compounded by the fact that the end of

the cold war possible an has robbed orderly, ingly, the distinction maybe categories that had made analysts of the clear categories if ultimately of civil wars. Accord flawed, coding war conflicts drawn between and their post-cold attributable than more to the demise to the existence of profound of readily available differences.

predecessors conceptual
* The

research shows that the prevalence of civil wars in the 1990s is attributable to a steady ac cumulation of conflicts since the 1950s, not the end of the cold war. See James D. Fearon and David at the in Comparative D. Laitin, "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War" (Paper presented Laboratory Ethnic Processes, Duke University, 2000). 2 Violence," Annual Review of Soci Rogers Brubaker and David D. Laitin, "Ethnic and Nationalist

participants comments. 1 Recent

author thanks Pierre Hassner, Sofia P?rez, Roger Petersen, Scott Straus, Libby Wood, and in the May 2000 CERl/lEP conference on "La guerre entre le local et le global," for their

24 ology (1998). 3

Steven R. David, "Internal War: Causes and Cures," World Politics 49 (July 1997). 4 Fearon and Laitin (fn. 1); Nicholas Sambanis, "Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: Politics 52 (July 2000). ical Critique of the Theoretical Literature," World

An Empir

WorldPolitics 54 (October 2001), 99-118

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This article traces the origins of this distinction and then disaggre
gates it along three and violence. support, I show, causes and motivations, the use of recent, mosdy ethno through or biased on recent civil information incomplete related dimensions:

research, how graphic wars taints our interpretation; on a

recent historical research by using mostly at how inadequate number of old civil wars, I demonstrate large to this kind of research affects our tention of past civil understanding wars. This on the with methodological article concludes suggestions wars. study of civil

Origins
Most or versions that new civil wars

of the Distinction
between are old and new civil wars stress criminal, characteristically depoliti old civil wars are considered ideological,

of the distinction and predatory; coincides to

imply cized, private,

political, collective, and even noble. The dividing line between old and
new civil wars The when tendency other nations' the end of the cold war. roughly with recent or ongoing denigrate wars?particularly to one s own?is not new. civil wars are compared

Consider the argument put forth in 1949, by F.A. Voigt, a British jour nalist covering the Greek CivilWar:
In the English and American civil wars, there were high-minded patriots on ei ther side. In these conflicts, the people were so evenly divided and the issues were of such depth, scope, and variety, that it is not possible for the historian to
condemn one side utterly ... and to attribute exclusive righteousness to the other, Sedi revolu

even if he may have the conviction that the triumph of one sidewas a national
calamity tion which or the reverse the Such considerations but not do not the nature attained magnitude apply of an to the Greek indigenous

tionary civil war. The Sedition is not to be explained in terms of any popular grievances or of any failure on the part of the State.5 war manifestation can be of this type of argument post-cold ' ac in part to authors who articulated "lay best-selling graphic counts of recent civil wars in places like Liberia, and Sierra Bosnia, a number of scholars in In addition, Leone.6 studies and inter security The traced national relations have also advanced various versions of this argu

5 F. A Voigt, The Greek Sedition (London: Hollis and Carter, 1949), 68-69. 6 Civil Wars: From LA. to Bosnia (New York: The New Press, See Hans Magnus Enzensberger, (New York Vintage, 1994); Robert D. Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History 1994); idem, are "The Coming Anarchy: How Scarcity, Crime, Overpopulation, and Disease Rapidly Destroying 44 (February 1994); Michael the Social Fabric of our Planet," Atlantic Monthly IgnatiefF, The Warriors Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998).

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS ment.7 and demic Even are some economists have a related adopted and "loot-seeking"

101 dis analytical civil wars? as a aca

tinction?between building criminal

"justice-seeking" models based on The adoption as itmotivates

specific policy demands, including For example, the 1999 agreement the civil war in Sierra Leone met with from many ending opposition human and opinion makers who believed rights activists, journalists, that the rebels were violent criminals and not political revolutionaries "humanitarian law-enforcement."9 and them that to it was therefore participate to grant immoral in the new government.10 them amnesty and invite

enterprise.8 exercise insofar

the assumption of the distinction

of rebellion is not a mere

Three
In most

Dimensions
related in Table di 1

mensions.

old and new civil wars vary along three accounts, are summarized These broadly stylized categories as follows:11

7 Edward N. Lutwack, "Great-powerless Days," Times Literary Supplement, June 16,1995; Kalevi J. The State, War, and the State ofWar, (Cambridge: Cambridge Holsti, Press, 1996); Chris University War: The New Politics of Conflicts Hables Gray, Post-Modern 1997); Mark (London: Routledge, States and Private Protection," Civil Wars "Post-modern Conflict: Warlords, Duffield, Post-adjustment in Civil Wars," Functions of Violence 1, no. 1 (1998); David Keen, "The Economic Adelphi Paper 320 (1998); Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Stanford, Calif: Stanford eds, Greed and Grievance: Economic Agen Press, 1999); Mats Berdal and David M. Malone, University das in Civil Wars (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000). 8 no. 2 Herschel I. Grossman, and Revolution," (April "Kleptocracy Oxford Economic Papers 51, 44, no. 6 1999); Paul Collier, "Rebellion as a Quasi-Criminal Activity," Journal of Conflict Resolution for Policy," in Chester and their Implications (2000); Paul Collier, "Economic Causes of Civil Conflict A. Crocker, Fen Osier Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds., Managing Global Chaos (Washington D.C.: Paul Azam and Anke Hoeffler, U.S. Institute of Peace, forthcoming); "Looting and Conflict between Bank inAfrica" (Paper presented at theWorld Ethno-Regional Groups: Lessons for State Formation on "The Economics Center for International of Civil War," Princeton University, Studies Workshop in Civil March and Anke Hoeffler, and Loot-Seeking 18-19, 2000); Paul Collier "Justice-Seeking in Civil War," World Bank War," Manuscript, World Bank, 1999); idem, "Greed and Grievance Policy Research Paper 2355 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2000). 9 Kaldor (fn. 7), 66. 10 A United Nations desire for amnesty in exchange for peace as official described the populations of justice. See Remy Ourdan, "Le Prix de la Paix," Le representing a peculiarly African understanding the publication of this article coincided with the announce Monde, December 2,1999. Interestingly, ment of a peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Critics of the Irish agreement were in turn criticized same media that condemned the Sierra Leone deal, on the exact opposite grounds. For example, by the in the amnesty agreement the French newspaper Le Monde condemned (December 4, 1999), which in the new Sierra Leone praised the British journalist Hugo Young, who supported the participation since without him, "there would be no of a former IRA commander government suspected of murders, on pragmatic grounds. in Sierra Leone was also condemned peace agreement." The peace agreement it is the absence of law It was pointed out that "from the rebels' point of view, why have peace when the peace In fact the rebels never had any intention of honoring and order that enables one to loot?... Reno, "When Peace accord; they were only interested inwaging war and looting the country." William Is Worse thanWar," New York Times, May 11,2000. Yet could not the same argument be made about the peace agreement in which has since been widely hailed as a success story? Mozambique, 11 some dimen into one, while others emphasize Some scholars collapse many of these dimensions sions at the expense of others. Kaldor (fn. 7) seems to compare new civil wars with old conventional

102 WORLD POLITICS

Old 1 Table and New Wars Old Civil Wars
Causes &, motivation collective broad grievances private

New Civil Wars

loot lack of popular support violence gratuitous

support Support popular violence Violence controlled

1.Old civilwars were political and fought over collectively articulated, broad,
even trast, noble new causes, civil wars such as social are criminal to as referred change?often "justice". and are motivated private by simple By con gain?

greed and loot. 2. At least one side in old civil wars enjoyed popular support; political actors in new civil wars lack any popular basis. 3. In old civil wars acts of violence were controlled and disciplined, especially
when committed by rebels; not in new civil wars gratuitous and senseless violence is

meted out by undisciplined militias, private armies, and independent warlords

for whom winning may even be an objective.

Collective

versus Private Causes and Motivations

into account the broad causes of civil wars and the individual Taking motivations of their combatants, scholars implicitly hold that old many civil wars were motivated clearly articulated, by broad, well-defined, new civil wars tend of social change,12 whereas, universalistic, ideologies to be motivated by concerns Recent that often work by boil down to little more is premised than on a gain. simple private distinction dichotomous economists

are and greed?rebels grievance or are actors either bandits motivated seeking political by private greed to ameliorate Kofi Annan collective UN Secretary-General grievance.13 out that "the of diamonds, timber, drugs, pursuit recently pointed between

wars. Keen (fn. 7) argues that looting generates "rational" rather than gratuitous violence. The claim to their that new civil wars are motivated by looting is sometimes made in contradistinction purported and looting are merged. For the former view sometimes ethnic motivations ethnic motivation?while a Culture of Prevention," see Kofi Annan, UNDPl(New "Facing the Humanitarian Challenge: Towards "The Banality of'Ethnic War,'" International Security York, 1999); for the latter view see John Mueller, 25, no. 1 (2000). 12Kaldor (fn. 7), 6. a 13Collier and Hoeffler, 2000 (fn. 8), 2-3; Collier (fn. 8); Collier and Collier and Hoeffler produce inwhich rebellion begins as a collective grievance and is sus number of mixed greed-grievance models to a World distinction. According tained by greed. All models, however, presuppose this dichotomous Bank Press Release: "New World Bank research suggests that civil wars are more often fueled by rebel for control of diamonds, coffee, and other valuable pri groups competing with national governments wars are far more rather than by political, ethnic, or religious differences...'Civil mary commodities, and therefore certain rebel groups than by grievance, likely to be caused by economic opportunities benefit from the conflict and have a very strong interest in initiating and sustaining it,' says [Paul] Col lier." World and Other 'Lootable' Commodities Bank, "Greed for Diamonds Release 2000/419/S, http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf, Fuels Civil Wars" (News accessed April 20,2001).

"NEW" concessions internal

6c "OLD" CIVIL WARS commodities

103

drives a number of today s the capacity of the State to extract resources to be from society and to allocate is the prize patronage over.14 The takes many criminal metaphor forms. For Enzens fought in new civil wars are "warrior factions berger, competing gangs."15 Ka wars as criminal in Africa civil actions by bandits and plan describes on disenfranchised and child-soldiers soldiers, teenage hooligans, and other valuable In some wars. countries lack purpose entirely. As En s civil wars a new and argues: "What gives today zensberger terrifying slant is the fact that they are waged without stakes on either side, that are wars about at all."17 Further, "there is no longer any they nothing to need has been freed from ideology," your actions. Violence legitimize argue and the combatants past Such and future.18 have an innate inability to think and act in terms of drugs.16 Some even that new civil wars

are often based on or biased however, arguments, incomplete evidence derived from journalistic reports that tend to quote uncriti of progovernmental and members cally city-dwellers organizations. Fieldworkers have described such views as paying "scant regard to the . . own claims the purpose of their movement. concerning insurgents' a view and [preferring] instead to endorse among widespread capital city elites denying [their]
these

and in diplomatic circles."19 Gourevitch points are the particularity of the peoples who making to recognize what is at stake in events

out

that "by and history, of

the possibility that they might have history, [such arguments] mistake
failure
events."20

for the nature

More because

generally, it is unclear

is analytically the concept of looting it refers to the causes of war whether

problematic or the moti

vations of the combatants (or both). The first problem is the direction

14 Annan (fn. 11). 15 (fn. 6), 22. Enzensberger 16 Kaplan (fn. 6). 17 in original. (fn. 6), 30. Emphasis Enzensberger 18 Ibid., 20-1,29. 19 Paul Richards, Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth, and Resources in Sierra Leone (Oxford: Christian Geffray James Currey, 1996), xvii. In his study of the war inMozambique, anthropologist [the war] on the ground," and international media that castigates "journalists who cannot investigate and analyses" reflecting the views of "urban elites, national intellectuals, and reproduce "information cause des armes au d'une guerre civile foreigners." Christian Geffray, La Mozambique: Anthropologie (Paris: Karthala, 1990), 19. 20 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will beKilled with Our Families: Sto Philip Gourevitch, ries 1998), 182. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, from Rwanda

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to be war in order to loot or do of causality?do they loot people wage able to wage war?21 If the latter is the case, then looting may be no dif taxation'. of "revolutionary ferent from the widely practice accepted au the looting?elites, it is not always clear who is doing Second, tonomous loot the linkages between armed peasants? Third, militias, ing and grievances 1992 Los Angeles much there and fluid.22 Can we seriously reduce the complex even riots to a phenomenon of "looting" though take place? Finally, other things?did many looting?among are serious in of empirical significance empirical problems. The proxying for "lootable" resources raises to address of important questions of causality. To problems is mainly Leone about dia Civil wars in Colom to such simplification.24 lengthy and gov that fail to support are

dicators internal

validity?beyond failing in Sierra say, in short, that the civil war to be a gross monds appears oversimplification.23 and Sudan are even less amenable bia, Somalia, Researchers fieldwork ernment verse and who have studied new in war zones?as to

civil wars

officials?provide include have members concerns

opposed very nuanced

by conducting victims interviewing accounts

the grievance/looting
Richards and-file shown

dichotomy. They find rebel motivations

about

are di

that go beyond mere banditry.25 Peters and for example, Sierra Leone, that many rank rebel movements that have been stig of the African

matized

as lacking any ideology

appear in fact to have had a

of their own Their political understanding participation.26 are not motivations visible to observers look ideological simply always ' for "Western of allegiance and discourse. They make the patterns ing that organizations idioms and local flawed assumption using religious sophisticated

21 the direction of causality may be irrelevant for predicting the likelihood of civil wars, it Although matters when deriving about civil wars. empirical, theoretical, and normative implications 22 Collier and Hoeffler the complexity of the possible connections between (fn. 8) acknowledge "greed" and "grievance." 23 Richards (fn. 19). 24 Mauricio Romero, "Changing Identities and Contested Settings: Regional Elites and the Para in Colombia," International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 14, no. 1 (2000); Isabelle militaries or Duyvesteyn, "Contemporary War: Ethnic Conflict, Resource Conflict Something Else?" Civil Wars "Violent Politics and the Politics of Violence: The Dissolution of 3, no. 1 (2000); Catherine Besteman, American Ethnologist 23, no. 3 (1996). the Somali Nation-State," 25 A psychologist who treated hundreds of fighters in the Liberian Civil War drew the following someone 16 and 35 years of age, who may have decided to become a usually between profile: "He is combatant for several reasons: to get food for survival, to stop other fighters from killing his family and friends, was forced to become a combatant or be killed, sheer adventurism etc." E. S. Grant, quoted in an ofLiberia and the Religious Dimension Stephen Ellis, The Mask ofAnarchy: The Destruction of African Civil War (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 127. 26 in Sierra Leone," Krijn Peters and Paul Richards, "'Why We Fight': Voices of Youth Combatants no. 2 (1998). Africa 68,

"new" to mobilize cultural practices universalistic appeals?lack

& "old"

civil

wars than easily recognizable use of traditional

105

people27?rather

any ideology. is central inAfrican of initiation, for example, rebel organiza processes s tions.28 Chingono of Mozambique argues that Re study emphatically and defending oudooks of the world, namo, "by resuscitating peasant . . . was which had been suppressed peasant articulating by Frelimo ideologies."29 To understand as warlords30?a ature feature mere on warlordism of warlordism modern useful rebel source leaders?often which referred pejoratively historical liter to

The

of insight on China), (focusing is rule rather than

is the relevant

are lords of a bandits; they particular to wage war.31 Whereas bandits?in and elsewhere?must China hit ity and run in order to survive, warlords taxes, administer levy justice, some assume maintain the burdens of degree of order, and generally are state builders. in the areas they control.32 They Saint government Augustine lands, observed

argues that the key are never Warlords looting. area virtue of their capac by

ate men this evil [brigandage] grows to such proportions that it holds
establishes fixed

this very phenomenon:

"If by accessions

of desper

seizes upon states and subjugates settlements, it assumes the name of a kingdom."33 in Rebel peoples, organizations as mere criminal gangs, a often dismissed Africa, ap develop complex areas is less visible but not paratus of rule in the they control?which very different rebels.34 These oriented" implemented by "justice in also engage and organizations systematic, organized, raw interactions with foreign firms, which economic buy activity views. an at odds with the extreme frag from the order

sophisticated materials and sell weapons,35 mentation implied by many

27 theWar inMozambique," in Paul B. Rich and Tom Young, "AVictim of Modernity? Explaining State: Guerrilla Warfare and State-Building in the Twenti Stubbs, eds., The Counter-Insurgent eth Century (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), 136-37; Stephen L.Weigert, Religion and Guerrilla Modern Africa (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996); Ellis (fn. 25); Thomas H. Henriksen, Warfare in sWar Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique (Westport, Conn.: of Independence, 1964-1974 Richard Greenwood Press, 1983), 76. 28 Richards (fn. 19), xix. 29 Mark F. Chingono, The State, Violence, and Development: The Political Economy ofWar in Mozam (Aldershot: Avebury, 1996), 55. bique, 1975-1992 30 See, for example, Reno (fn. 10). 31 James E. Sheridan, Chinese Warlord: The Career ofFeng Yu-hsiang (Stanford, Calif: Stanford Uni versity Press, 1966), 1. 32 Ibid., 19. 33 Saint Augustine, The City of God, trans. John Healey (London: J.M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dut ton, 1931), IV:iv. 34Stephen Ellis, "Liberia 1989-1994: A Study of Ethnic and Spiritual Violence," African Affairs no. 375 (1995), 165-197; Duffield (fn. 7); Geffray (fn. 19). 35 William Reno, Warlord Politics and African States (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1998). 94,

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The typical picture of "ideologically oriented" actors in old civilwars,

for its part, is often in criminal engaged coercion Indeed, as well. Such actors have often misrepresented activities, large-scale looting, and the pronounced to represent. of the populations whose grievances they claimed a is recurring element of civil wars, the most looting including ones such as the Russian such and Chinese with "criminal Revolutions36 in the elements" and 1940s.37 during rebellions, into agreements entered as the one in Indonesia

ideological anticolonial Even Lenin

the Russian Civil War. The behavior of the Red Army in Kharkov and Kiev in 1919, as it emerges from Soviet records, led the historian Vladimir N. Brovkin to assert that "in plain English, the Bolshevik
and rapists."38 "Taxation" is a key rebel activity in all civil wars, and incumbents do not shy away from outright looting. one could find among the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese During thieves rulers were

militiamen
while

former criminals "who preferred fighting to sitting in jail,"

advisers often allowed Units the members to of the CIA Provincial Reconnaissance

American

sponsored "keep money captured their operations."39 The during paradigmatic ideological political the members of the French de actors, armies, were Revolutionary as scribed by their contemporaries "highwaymen," "vagrants," "robbers," and "vicious, bloodthirsty Nor should one "vagabonds," hooligans."40 to their adversaries, that the counterrevolutionaries, resorted forget as well.41 banditry the importance Furthermore, wars has been greatly overstated. stemic bias concerns. in old civil motivations of ideological To begin with, there is a clear epi in favor of the that old civil wars (as well as most assumption intellectuals tend to be primarily motivated by ideol

individuals participating in them) were motivated by grand ideological

Because

ogy, they tend to assign overwhelmingly

ideological motives

to both

36 Lincoln Li, The Japanese Army inNorth China, 1937-1941: Problems ofPolitical and Economic Con trol (Tokyo: Oxford University the Masses: Building Press, 1975), 229; Odoric Y.K. Wou, Mobilizing Revolution inHenan Press, 1994), 154; Orlando Figes, A Peoples (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University 1891-1924 (New York: Penguin, 1997), 666-67. Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 37 Robert Cribb, Gangsters and Revolutionaries: The Jakarta Peoples Militia and the Indonesian Revo of Hawaii Press, 1991), 54. lution, 1945-1949 (Honolulu: University 38 in Russia, 1918-1922 Vladimir M. Brovkin, Political Parties and Social Movements (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 121. 39 Mark Moyar, Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIAs Secret Campaign toDestroy the Viet Cong (An napolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1997), 168. 40 Richard Cobb, The People s Armies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 5. 41 Charles Tilly, The Vend?e (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), 6.

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS participants and civilians ethnic in civil wars.42 Moreover, or local claims, universalistic when not

107 crudely

ideological "disguising" appeals were means of traditional cultural idioms often not un by propagated in new civil wars. For example, Lan has like those used by movements shown how the "progressive" Zimbabwean rebels who against fought racist regime used traditional the country's (and its practition religion to infer the In addition, it is a grave mistake ers) to mobilize peasants.43 motivations of rank-and-file members from their leadership's how articula tion of its ideological messages.44 Microlevel historical studies across

consistently

demonstrate

super

ficial was the adoption of ideological claims (typically expressed in

baffling acronyms) numerous studies considerations a range of civil wars. A common of old civil wars is that at the mass to trump in finding local level, et al. make this

ones. Dallin ideological Soviet Union, where about German-occupied point or the was to side with decision the Germans partisans tended

an individual's not determined

and evaluations of the merits and demerits by "abstract considerations nor even or two of the under regimes, by likes and dislikes experiences the Soviet regime before the occupation."45 subtle analy Swedenburg's

sis of Palestinian collaboration with the British during the 1936-39

Palestinian McKenna's Likewise, focus narratives" rebels and supporters in the Southern reveals "that ordinary Muslims' perceptions Philippines of the war were often conspicuously and representations independent on the "unauthorized point.46 of Muslim influences of any separatist leaders or, for that matter, rebellion makes the same

of the ideological

is not directiy caused by individual, radical ideologies even in It turns out that political violence as Delia Porta shows in her terrorist organizations. study of Italian and German Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Porta, Social Movements, Press, 1995), 196. As Barrington Moore puts it: Italy and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University "The discontented intellectual with his soul searchings has attracted attention wholly out of proportion to his political importance, records and also partiy because these searchings leave behind them written because those who write history are themselves intellectuals." Barrington Moore, Social Origins ofDic Modern World (Boston: Beacon Press, Making of the tatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the urban environments, See Donatella Delia in Zimbabwe David Lan, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums (London: James Currey, 1985). See also Henriksen (fn. 27), 76, forMozambique. 44 1919-1944 Paul Jankowski, Communism and Collaboration: Simon Sabiani and Politics in Marseille, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), ix, xii. 45 and andWilhelm Alexander Dallin, Ralph Mavrogordato, "Partisan Psychological Warfare Moll, of in John A. Armstrong, ed., Soviet Partisans inWorld War II (Madison: University Popular Attitudes," Wisconsin 46 Ted Press, 1964), 336. Rebellion Swedenburg, Memories ofRevolt: The 1936-1939 of Minnesota Press, 1995), 169-70. (Minneapolis: University and the Palestinian National Past

42

1966), 480 43

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in of any elite effective insurgent group."47 Observing performance that rebels are highly combat has often led to the erroneous inference dedicated concluded cause. However, numerous to an studies have ideological in combat are usually motivated that men by group pressures

and processes involving: (1) regard for their comrades, (2) respect for their leaders, (3) concern for their own reputation with both, and (4) an
to their success of the urge to contribute group.48 Recent sociological a "choice" even more amenable on to ide research conversion, religious considerations than politics, shows that doctrinal ological appeal does not their lie at the heart very conversion.49 of the conversion become attached process: most people do not to the doctrines of their new faith until processes are rooted of joining and Petersen argue out about that really after social

Usually,

in network

network ties (especially friendship and kin ties) are the best predictors
of joining a movement.50 As Hart points the Irish Revolu

dynamics.

Stark, Wickham-Crowley,

tion and Civil War:

The most important bonds holding Volunteers together were those of family and neighborhood. Indeed, IRA companies were very often founded upon such
networks . . . Twelve side. None "It was of the could very thirteen veterans making I interviewed a specific by had choice the republican a clue"; hadn't within their remember fought to do on the so. "I of

confusing of

altogether." it was second

Judging

recollections

Cork veterans, the Treaty

ranks. "The

itself and republican ideology were rarely discussed

place at times." Most couched

politics

their decisions
the organization.51

in the same collective terms they used to describe their joining

left-right of civil wars, appears to have led to a significant plexity and messiness overstatement content of old civil wars via unwar of the ideological

In short, the familiar

the handy

of coherent presence conceptual categories along to the com which blinded casual observers axis,

47 Thomas M. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines of California Press, 1998), 194-95. Collective grievances (Berkeley: University tend to be expressed only under restrictive conditions. "Pride in Rebellion: In See Elisabeth Wood, Collective Action in El Salvador" (Manuscript, New York University, surrectionary Spring 2001). 48 Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning toKill inWar and Society (Boston: and Criti Little, Brown, and Company, 1995), 89-90; Walter Laqueur, Guerilla Warfare: A Historical cal Study (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, this does not answer the question 1998), 272. Obviously, of how and why an organization capable of providing such training and leadership emerges. 49 Became the the Obscure, Marginal Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How Jesus Movement Rodney a Dominant 1997), Religious Force in the Western World in Few Centuries (New York: Harper Collins, 14-17. 50 on Latin American Ibid.; Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Insurgency and Exploring Revolution: Essays M. E. Sharpe, 1991), 152; Roger Petersen, Resistance and Rebel Revolutionary Theory (Armonk, N.Y.: lion: Lessons from Eastern Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 51 Peter Hart, The LR.A. and Its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923 (New York: Clarendon Press, 1999), 209,264.

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS ranted inferences from seems the elite to the mass to have caused

109

of the cold war

the demise

level. In this regard, the end cat of the conceptual

wars rather than a decline in the egories used to interpret civil ideolog at the mass ical motivations of civil wars level. Ironically, detailed research analysts pictions about these wars of contemporary produced when conducted years later tends to be ignored by civil wars who keep relying on the flawed de the old civil wars were ongoing.

Popular
Since

Support versus Lack of Support

were they least for the rebels. to grow out of accumulated supposed popular to be based on considerable assumed popular sup By contrast, new civil wars appear to be

old civil wars were

grievances, port?at Kaldor: Mao

fought by political actors who

lack any such support. According

to

as articulated at least in "Whereas guerrilla warfare, theory by or Che Guevara, aims to capture 'hearts and minds,' the Tse-tung new warfare borrows from counterinsurgency of destabi techniques lization aimed at sowing Tear and hatred.'"52 Similarly, Nordstrom de scribed the Mozambican rebel movement

as "a rebels of the Renamo lethal particularly no or that has virtually ideology popular support," formed by foreign powers intent on destabilizing the country, and re for "over 90 percent of all atrocities Likewise committed."53 sponsible P?caut is not a civil war because that the war in Colombia the argues does not support any side at all.54 population are often based upon Such statements incomplete mation. Nordstrom's refugees forces" views with government or biased infor

on inter for example, relies exclusively account, in areas liberated from Renamo control by "recently or and information provided by progovernmental

of Mozambican (such as the Organization Women), ganizations relay the government's view of the rebels. that "in She ing reported is generally referred to as bandidos armados [the Renamo] Mozambique, in all civil wars use such that incumbents (armed bandits)," ignoring terms to describe insurgents.55 Recent studies based on evidence that

52 Kaldor (fn. 7), 8. 53 and JoAnn Martin, "The Backyard Front," in Carolyn Nordstrom eds., The Carolyn Nordstrom, Paths toDomination, of California Press, 1992), 271-72. Resistance, and Terror (Berkeley: University 54 une guerre contre la soci?t?," Le Monde, October Daniel P?caut, "En Colombie, Simi 10,1999. lar statements are commonly made about Sierra Leone. See, for example, Reno (fn. 35). 55 a more nuanced In a subsequent in account, Nordstrom provided portrayal of the situation "War on the Front Lines," in Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius Mozambique. Carolyn Nordstrom, C. G. M. Robben, eds., Fieldwork under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival(Berkeley: of California Press, 1995), 142. University

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was hard (if not impossible) to collect while the civil war was ongoing
a considerable level of popular enjoyed support.56 was present in rural areas controlled This where support by Renamo, researchers and journalists rather than in the cities rarely traveled, under governmental control.57 indicate that Renamo Conversely, question. America To the perception that rebellions in old civil wars were

based on widespread popular support has been repeatedly called into

the view that leftist rebellions, begin with, were based on and elsewhere, and mostly widespread sual popular has been questioned careful participation by research.58 Likewise, the Vietcong oriented relied on extensive to what Kaldor the civilian population.59 against Contrary new?as is nothing population displacement suggested classic wars as the Russian, and Chinese Civil wars. Spanish, individual informed in old loyalties less by impersonal civil wars, discourses in Latin consen micro coercion argues,60 by such civil by

mass

Furthermore, are often wars,

as in new and more

fluid, shifting, and often locally based cleavages.Many

messy

studies describe

a often characterized between processes, disjunction by underly on the one hand, and violent conflict and identities on the ing cleavages in Ireland from other. For Hart's of Cork County analysis example, an the microlevel, "array of?often loyalties conflicting?local turned every part of Cork into a political patchwork."61 When, a civil war, the decision Irish nationalists about which fought

1916 to 1923 unearths a high level of variation in political attitudes at

[which] in 1923, side to Factional

was join divisions

as always, by group loyalties "shaped, became political battle lines."62

and rivalries.

56 also points out that "while Renamo would not have (fn. 29). Chingono Young (fn. 27); Chingono survived without external support, exclusive focus on external factors equally distorts the reality and own are reduced to mere denies theMozambicans' and passive victims of manipulations history; they and Sierra Leone. See Ellis (fn. 34); Richards (fn. 19). 58 and the Story ofAll Poor Guatemalans See, for example, David Stoll, Rigoberta Mench? (Boulder: Iv?n Degregori, Storms: Peasant Rondas and the Defeat of Westview, 1999); Carlos "Harvesting in Ayacucho," in Steven J. Stern, ed., Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Sendero Luminoso Peru, 1980-1995 (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998), 128-57. The same is true for anticolonial wars in Africa. See Norma Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices (Cambridge: Press, 1992). Cambridge University 59 and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Douglas Pike, Viet Cong: The Organization Vietnam (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966). 60 Kaldor (fn. 7), 8. 61 Hart (fn. 51), 220. 62 Ibid., 265-66. machinations of powerful external forces." 57 Similar observations have been made about Liberia

"new"

& "old"

civil

wars

111

Family and faction dictated the course of the IRA split in units all over Ireland, often in highly predictable fashion. Once again, itwas the Brennans against the in east Limerick, Barretts in Clare, the Hanniganites against theManahanites inDonegal as all the old feuds were and the Sweeneys versus the O'Donnells
reignited.63

Similar titude had

dynamics

are observable

in most

old civil wars.

the South Vietnamese village of Binh Nghia displayed a "lukewarm at

toward the Viet across originated the local communist Cong" because the river, in the Phu Long hamlets, in the central Peruvian valley movement with which the

For example,

whom

they had a long-standing and hostile feud over fishing rights.64

describes, of Canipaco over

As Manrique

population enjoyed a "kind of honeymoon" with Shining Path, which

ended when tribution a two communities dispute erupted between of lands previously usurped by haciendas.65 is often articulated of rebellions Because the meaning of national observers those the dis

language cleavages, many as support along actually mobilizing popular In his analysis of the Cultural workers disagree. nese village, Hinton class with

by elites in the code them erroneously

Field cleavages. in one Chi Revolution

factions used the language of reports that warring each faction that the other represented struggle, claiming landlords and counterrevolutionary elements. Hinton, found however, was dominated polarized the northern clans: the Lu family, competing and larger section of the village, and the a major role in the southern section of the vil was made by the writer of a report on the around

that the conflict which Shen

family, which played same lage.66 The discovery

1927 Haifeng

uprising in South China, a region polarized into com

63 Ibid., 266. 64 "The hostility between the Phu Longs and Binh Nghia was generations old, focused on a feud over was natural that the Phu as well as Longs assumed economic fishing rights. It political power when the Viet Cong were on the rise and this was done at the direct expense of fishermen from Binh the Viet Cong came across the river to spread the gospel, there were many in So later when Nghia. Binh Nghia who resented them and any cause they represented. The police chiefs had fed this resent ment with money and had built a spy network." See F. J. of West, Jr., The Village (Madison: University Wisconsin Press, 1985), 146-47. 65 of armed Shining Path cadres on the side of one of the communities in a "The participation a confederation a rupture with the latter, of rival communities massive confrontation against provoked in who decided to turn over two senderista cadres they had captured in the scuffle to the authorities in the execution of thirteen Huancayo. This action provoked Shining Path reprisals, which culminated in the central from their communities and assassinated peasant leaders. The victims were kidnapped "TheWar for the Central Sierra," in Stern (fn. 58), 204-5. plaza of Chongos Alto." Nelson Manrique, 66 in a Chinese William Hinton, Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution Village (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), 527.

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peting alliances of villages known as Red Flag and Black Flag, which had grown out of lineage struggles: "When the Red Army arrived fly alike from Red Flag villages who thought theywere allies in the strug
gle against Moreover, the common locally enemy, the Black Flag villages."67 segmented in misleading cleavages often aggregate one actor in one support political region can be merchants region;68 wealthy ing red banners, the troops were greeted by landowners and peasants

ways?wealthy and its rival targeted

peasants may in a neighboring

in an otherwise death by poor right-wing squad members or not) sets of diverse conflict;69 regional class-polarized (overlapping and local cleavages, such as socio-economic, factional, clan, lineage, to combine mislead tribal, gender, or generational cleavages, produce aggregate ingly uniform cleavages; vertical relationships (patron-client) ties (communities, and vertical townlands, neighborhoods, parishes, factions, clans, or kin) often trump horizontal corporations, cleavages.70 are often "localistic interests and region-specific;"71 individual Group are not motivations informed by impersonal cleavage necessarily even related grievances, but often by local and personal conflicts,72 by common crime.73 As Tilly has observed about the Vend?e: "The most we have on communal in southern information microscopic politics Anjou resists forcing into categories of class and locality alone, and calls

for hunches about kinship, family friendships, the residues of old feuds,
and the like."74 The in terms that same societies that are sharply polarized applies for of class75 and ethnicity.76 Social relations and the connections a matter of "constant formed identities before the war become

67 Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasants and the inHaifeng Making ofHistory ofWisconsin (Madison: University Press, 1984), 263. County, 1570-1930 68 David H. Close, "Introduction," inDavid H. Close, ed., The Greek Civil War, 1943-1950: Studies in Polarization (London and New York: Roudedge, (fn. 19). 1993), 1-31; Geffray 69 of a Death "The Operation J. Demarest, Benjamin D. Paul andWilliam Squad in San Pedro la Laguna," in Robert M. Carmack, ed., Harvest of Violence: The Maya Indians and the Guatemalan Crisis of Oklahoma (Norman: University Press, 1988), 128,150. 70 Hart (fn. (fn. 51), 177; McKenna (fn. 66), 527; Marks (fn. 47), 162; Kriger (fn. 58), 8; Hinton 67), 264. 71 (fn. 46), 131-33; Wickham-Crowley (fn. 29), 16; Swedenburg Young (fn. 27), 138-42; Chingono (fn. 50), 131. 72 (fn. 69). See, for example, McKenna (fn. 47); Swedenburg (fn. 46); Paul and Demarest 73 Mueller When Colombia Bled: A His (fn. 11); Paul and Demarest (fn. 69); James D. Henderson, of Alabama Press, 1985). tory of the Violencia in Tolima (University, Ala.: University 74 Tilly (fn. 41), 191. 75 Stoll (fn. 58). 76 Et ils sont devenus Harkis Richards (Paris: Fayard, 1993); Jan T. (fn. 19), 6;Mohand Hamoumou, Gross, Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland sWestern Ukraine and Western Belorussia (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988).

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS reformulation."77

113

a medium In many ways, civil wars provide for a to be realized within of grievances the space of the great variety er conflict and the use of violence. As Lucas argues about the through Revolution a language in southern for other France, conflicts of "the revolutionary struggle provided a social, or communal, personal

nature."78

view

In short, micro-oriented studies of old civil wars offer a ground-level wars as "welters of of civil rather than as complex struggles,"79 sup simple binary conflicts between organizations crystallizing popular In old civil port and collective grievances along well-defined cleavages.

was and lost during the war, often wars, popular support shaped, won, means of coercion and violence and along lines of and local by kinship itwas not and primarily ideo fixed, immutable, ity; purely consensual, In this respect, old civil wars are not as different from new civil logical. wars as to be. they appear

Controlled
Violence

versus Gratuitous
in new civil wars

Violence

as both horrific and is consistently described out mercenar and paramilitaries, senseless, meted by assorted militia and independent warlords for whom winning the war may not even ies, be an objective.80 Human and the press described rights organizations that took place and "incomprehensible" less," "wanton," often come with ery."81 Such descriptions the gruesome massacres in Algeria instances in 1997 shade. as "sense butch In the last of "random

a culturalist

Serb soldiers massacred 1998, when days of September twenty-one and elderly people near the village of Gornje Obrinje women, children, a detailed in Kosovo, account concluded itwas an instance journalistic of "the tra of taking violent revenge [which] is a time-honored practice are often in the Balkans."82 These dition descriptions by complemented to acts of violence that attempt arguments explain by simply their effects. A psychologist victims who treated the maimed stating of the

77 of California Press, Mary Elizabeth Berry, The Culture of Civil War inKyoto (Berkeley: University 1994), xxi. 78 Colin Lucas, "Themes in Southern Violence in Gwynne Lewis and Colin after 9 Thermidor," 1794-1815 Lucas, eds., Beyond the Terror: Essays in French Regional and Social History, (Cambridge: Press, 1983), 152-94. Cambridge University 79 Susan F. Harding, Remaking Ibieca: Rural Life in of Aragon under Franco (Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press, 1984), 59. 80 Kaldor (fn. 7), 93. 81 Stathis N. Kalyvas, "Wanton and Senseless? The Logic ofMassacres and in Algeria," Rationality no. 3 (1999), 243-85. Society 11, 82 Stands as Gruesome of Serb Revenge," Interna Evidence Jean Perlez, "Kosovo Clans Massacre tional Herald Tribune, November 16,1998.

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Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone pointed out that "it
was the goal of the rebels to take away their role as men, fathers and states that "Renamo, with its tactics of sever husbands/'83 Nordstrom ears of civilians, seems to reclaim the ing the noses, original lips, and sense of the absurd."84 to "the autistic nature of points Enzensberger

perpetrators, and their inability to distinguish between destruction and

self-destruction."85 ofDarkness.u Such senseless A book violence quoted just was ad nauseam not as is Joseph Conrads Heart if

we

prevalent that argues Enzensberger, were and Spanish Civil Wars "there Russian, regular structures to carry the central command attempted in a strict control of objectives planned way through are to believe who defined ent To goals, and ready and able to negotiate when

in old civil wars in the American, armies and fronts; out their their

strategic troops. As a Yet a

rule there was political aswell asmilitary leadership, following clearly

necessary."87

quick perusal of the evidence from old civilwars conveys a quite differ
image. the perception that civil wars are particularly cruel begin with, new civil wars?it is one of the most and consistent predates enduring stressed by observers and participants observations,88 alike, ever since of the civil war in Corcyra.89 Thucydides' depiction While tion the violence of ethnic conflicts has received sustained atten is in fact the central component of all kinds of civil lately, violence a ethnic and non-ethnic alike. For example, war, nineteenth-century French leader remarked that "excesses are insepa counterrevolutionary rable from wars of opinion."90 Madame de Sta?l observed Likewise, that "all civil wars heaval in which are more they or less similar and in their atrocity, throw men in the influence in the up to vio they give

83 Norimitsu Terror in Severed Limbs," New York Times, August "Sierra Leone Measures Onishi, 22,1999. 84 Nordstrom (fn. 55), 142. 85 (fn. 6), 20. Enzensberger 86 See, for example, Ignatieff (fn. 6), 5. 87 (fn. 6), 15. Enzensberger 88 Nico H. Frijda, "The Lex Talionis: On Vengeance," in Stephanie H.M. Van Goozen, Nanne E. Van de Poll, and Joseph Sergeant, eds., Emotions: Essays on Emotion Theory (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994), 267. 89 war there as a situation in which "there was death in every shape Thucydides depicted the civil and form. And, as usually happens in such situations, people went to every extreme and beyond it." trans. Rex Warner N.Y.: Penguin (Harmondsworth, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, the inherent literature sentiments Books, 1977), 241. One easily finds in the historical emphasizing war. See Claude Petitfr?re, La Vend?e et les Vend?ens (Paris: Galli cruelty and ravaging nature of civil 1981), 50; and John G?nther, Behind the Curtain (New York: Harper, 1949), 129. mard/fulliard, 90 1997), 237. Roger Dupuy, Les Chouans (Paris: Hachette,

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS lent and

115

Latin America has been a privileged tyrannical passions."91 of very violent but mostly civil wars.92 Descriptions non-ethnic setting in such old civil wars as the Russian of extreme violence and Spanish are abound.93 The militia is of using local semi-independent practice actors.94 Likewise, the oriented among many "ideologically" widespread in order to turn them into fighters may be asso abduction of children

ciated with new civil wars inAfrica but itwas consistently practiced in
many "ideologically motivated" children During the most became the rebellions, such as the Afghan El insur

gency following the Soviet invasion95 and the Shining Path insurgency
"ideological") (supremely of young violent groups were composed in age from eight to fifteen.98 Guards, ranging to new civil wars, to it is important Turning begin by pointing tural Revolution, knife and machete it forty years tend to horrify us more than the often in Peru.96 Many and Nicaragua.97 fighters in Guatemala, Salvador, Chinese Cul Red out

that our understanding of violence is culturally defined.99 Killings by more massive killings by aerial and field artillery bombings. As Crozier
put high nate make of the strong may express itself in ago: "The violence are no less discrimi bombs. These weapons explosives napalm than a hand-grenade tossed from a roof-top; indeed, they will more innocent victims. Yet they arouse less moral indignation or is often the "senseless" violence of new firesides."100 Moreover, as it appears. The massacres not as in Al gratuitous as was the violence often highly and strategic,101 selective incomparably

around Western civil wars geria were

de Sta?l, Des circonstances actuelles qui peuvent terminer la r?volution et des principes qui doivent fonder la r?publique en France, ?d. Lucia Omacini 1979), 10. (1798; Geneva: Librairie Droz, 92 Tina Rosenberg, Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America (New York: Penguin, 1991), 7. 93 and Revolu Tradition, See, for example, Julio de la Cueva, "Religious Persecution, Anticlerical tion: On Atrocities against the Clergy during the Spanish Civil War," Journal of 'Contemporary History 33, no. 3 (1998); Figes (fn. 36); Brovkin (fn. 38). 94 (fn. 58). (fn. 69); Degregori Kalyvas (fn. 81), 265-77; Paul and Demarest 95 sAccount Artyom Borovik, The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist of the Soviet War inAfghanistan (London: Faber and Faber, 1991), 25. 96 Ponciano Del Pino H., "Family, Culture, and 'Revolution: Everyday Life with Sendero Lumi (Durham and noso," in Steve J. Stern, ed. Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995 London: Duke University Press, 1998), 171. 97 llene Cohn and Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children inArmed Conflict (Ox in Thomas W. Walker, ford: Clarendon "The Former Contras," ed., Press, 1994); Ariel C. Armony, 207. Del.: Scholarly Resources), Nicaragua without Illusions (Wilmington, 98 Causes of Violence in Chinas Cultural Rev III, Policies of Chaos: The Organizational Lynn T. White olution (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989), 280-81. 99 of and Sacrament (Reno and Las Vegas: University Joseba Zulaika, Basque Violence: Metaphor Nevada Press, 1988). 100 Brian Crozier, The Rebels: A Study of Postwar Insurrections (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 158. 101 Kalyvas (fn. 81).

91 Madame

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atrocities to battle were harden

RENAMO. extreme found that the most Young by of a carefully drawn?and part largely successful?plan committed ern against

young, mostly forcibly conscripted young guerrillas. Likewise, atrocities

Mozambique, were concentrated at in south the population large where the FRELIMO government had a strong base.102

Paul Richards, an anthropologist who

Leone, provides in this country: violence a nuanced analysis

studied the civil war in Sierra

motivated rebel

of the strategically

Take, for instance, a spate of incidents in villages between Bo andMoyamba, in 1995 inwhich rebels cut off the hands of village women. September-October What clearer instance could there be of a reversion to primitive barbarity? Im ages flood into the mind of hands cut off*for the manufacture of magic potions. But behind this savage series lay, in fact, a set of simple strategic calculations. The insurgent movement spreads by capturing young people. Short of food in
the pre-harvest the movement period, and return some captives, irrespective to their the villages where rebel of the early risks, sought harvest was to about defy to

commence. How
harvest. (the When the rice granary

could the rebels prevent such defections? By stopping the

news the of of affected region) in central Sierra Leone amputations spread were to venture few women prepared then off the started hands to use that the might same tactic

out in the fields. The harvest ceased ... Having decided not to take part in the
1996 February away would-be vote.103 elections the rebels to scare cast a voters?cutting otherwise

commissioner the European for humanitarian Indeed, as in Sierra Leone the atrocities committed carefully tralized rather than gratuitous and random.104 To summarize, both limited, disciplined, new civil wars is senseless, gratuitous, in the available evidence. support the perception or understandable that violence and the view

affairs described planned and cen is in

in old civil wars that violence fails to find

and uncontrolled

of its supporters could not be achieved by 0f the numbers involved, the elimination off a handful of local party officials. Such violence was less evident in areas where simply picking FRELiMO influence and presence had been eliminated and renamo was In relatively well established. the Gorongosa coexistence with the civilian popu region there was reasonably good and co-operative seems to have been less brutal lation and little apparent fear. The renamo presence in the Zambezia and better organised from its first arrival in the area." Young (fn. 27), 132-33. 103 Richards (fn. 18), xx. 104 in Africa. They are the result of an orches "Such atrocities are not part of traditional warfare trated strategy to terrorize civilians, carried out by troops trained in such barbarous techniques. The systematic pattern of these crimes, as well as the scale of the terror, do not support claims that the rebels are retreating, isolated and beyond control. Field reports indicate that rebel movements could not take control and supplies from the outside. Crimes on this scale are communication, place without usually orchestrated." Emma Bonino, "No Court to Deter the Barbarity in Sierra Leone," International HeraldTribune, July 8,1998.

102 ?By virtue

"NEW" & "OLD" CIVIL WARS

117

Conclusion
The parallel reading of emerging research on new civil wars and over

looked historical research on old civilwars suggests that the distinction between them should be strongly qualified. Civil wars undoubtedly dif
fer from idence argued mously of respects. However, the available ev to be less tend than usually suggests that differences pronounced and that they may not array themselves and dichoto neatly around the end of the cold war. each other if not their the disappearance in a number

The demise of the cold war potentially affected the way inwhich
civil wars were fought,

of external sources of legitimation and funding provided by competing

on local resources. Yet, the exact mechan superpowers puts a premium to lootable resources? isms that link funding and war?from diasporas are in which remain and how they affect the ways civil wars fought inadequately specified. At the same time, it is often and observers. overlooked that the end of the cold war if flawed, civil wars

frequency.

Clearly,

has decisively affected how civilwars are interpreted and coded by both
participants an By removing aspects coherent, of recent that stress than political and a con

categories and classificatory devices, the end of the cold war has led to
exaggeration of the criminal of recent

comitant neglect of theirmanifold political aspects. It ishighly possible

interpretations and criminalization tual categories
war per se.

that

civil wars

are attributable

more

to the demise

their depoliticization of the concep

generated

war by the cold

to the end of the cold

the demise of the conceptual categories engendered by an is it allows us to rather than a handicap; opportunity core of civil wars unhindered of externally probe the by the constraints be to again coin con lenses. The wrong research path would imposed in current events rather than good theory. ceptual categories grounded Nonetheless, the cold war in this respect. As is particularly The vulnerable study of violence reac it "has been characterized Horowitz points out, by considerable to the occurrence events of various classes. has of violent tivity Theory to events and the twisted and turned in response changing identity of the protagonists."105 Flawed and the assumptions derived categories from them undermine theory even the most sound sophisticated conceptual modeling categories exercises. and reli In turn, good requires

105 Donald

Horowitz,

2001), 33.

The Deadly

Ethnic

Riot

(Berkeley:

University

of California

Press,

118

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POLITICS can a by only be generated research. For example, pat levels of war centralization, or levels of violence. We

able empirical indicators. Such categories and empirical of parallel analytical process or may not covary with terns of looting may ethnic need

commitment, polarization, ideological em to the key mechanisms identify the relevant specify carefully, and collect appropriate and accurate data. Further indicators, pirical the importance of historical research cannot be overemphasized. more, in sustained, research on civil wars must be grounded system Clearly,

or at the observation reconstruction atic, and long-term ethnographic mass level coupled with archival research. Such research is essential be cause civil wars are to the trade-off between vis vulnerable particularly

ibility and significance. Highly

discourses and or advertised

visible

information,

such as elite

atrocities, widely is less than hard-to-collect significant undertheorized and underresearched such as the aspects of civil wars, of warfare and actors, the forms of resource and the extraction, type

can be outwardly misleading evidence about crucial but

patterns of violence. By illustrating the potential pitfalls of failing to do

so, this article must embrace argues that a research such approaches. program for the study of civil wars