Inside Insurgency

Claire Metelits is assistant professor of political science at Washington State University.

Once considered nationalists, many insurgent groups are now labeled as terrorists and thought to endanger not just their own people, but the world. As the unprecedented trends in political violence among insurgents have taken shape, and as hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to be displaced, brutalized, and killed, Inside Insurgency provides startling insights that help to explain the nature of insurgent behavior.Claire Metelits draws from over 100 interviews with insurgent soldiers, commanders, government officials, scholars, and civilians in Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, Turkey, and Iraq, offering a new understanding of insurgent group behavior and providing compelling and intimate portraits of the SPLA, FARC, and PKK. The engaging narratives that emerge from her on-the-ground fieldwork provide incredibly valuable and accurate first-hand documentation of the tactics of some of the world's most notorious insurgent groups. Inside Insurgency offers the reader a timely and intimate understanding of these movements, and explains the changing behavior of insurgent groups toward the civilians they claim to represent.

Offers a timely and intimate understanding of insurgency and explains the changing behavior of insurgent groups toward the civilians they claim to represent

Preface vi; 1. Insurgents and Civilian-Targeted Violence 1; 2. Rivals and the Logic of Insurgent Violence 20; 3. "The Elephant is Not Yet Dead." The Reform of the SPLA 43; 4. From Jekyll to Hyde: The Transformation of the FARC 108; 5. Freedom Fighters or Terrorists? The Ongoing Transformations of the PKK 166; 6. The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Active Rivalry 219; Notes 241; Bibliography 297; Index 000; About the Author 334