Content area
Full Text
POLITICS, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, AND GLOBALIZATION Zachariah Cherian Mampilly. Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life during War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2011. xxi + 293 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $45.00. Cloth.
This book is a must-read for anybody wishing to understand why some rebels assemble comprehensive administrations to rule civilians while others fail to do so or reject this task. In his analysis, Mampilly challenges claims of other scholars that economic incentives drive rebel organization and goals, arguing instead for a process-based approach. In his well-researched surveys of rebel governance in Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, Sudan's SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army), and Congo's RCD-Goma (Rasemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Goma), Mampilly finds that preconflict political environments weigh heavily in shaping how rebels rule, but within this context rebels make consequential choices. He backs this conclusion with extensive interview and documentary evidence collected during field visits and from his interactions with rebel leaders and administrators.
Mampilly takes rebel agency seriously. Most rebels want to rule civilians, but rule requires considerable discipline among rebels and it claims resources that they could use for fighting. Yet ruling civilians brings rebels in contact with local material and political resources under civilian control. Effective rebel rule provides rebels with information from civilians about the activities of their...