Rebel Economies

Rebel Economies explores historical, anthropological, and political dimensions of non-state war economies across different periods and regions. Through a variety of conceptual and disciplinary approaches, the authors investigate distinct case studies across three continents, revealing nexuses between the economy, war, and social transformation.

As a pervasive occurrence in the contemporary world, wars and their economic sources are defining social and political processes in a variety of national and transnational contexts. Rebel Economies: Warlords, Insurgents, Humanitarians explores historical, anthropological and political dimensions of war economies by non-state actors across different periods and regions, while presenting their multiple manifestations as a unified, congruent phenomenon. Through a variety of conceptual and disciplinary approaches, the authors investigate, in the past and present and across three continents, the nexuses between economy, war, social transformation and state-building, revealing in the process differences and similarities that would otherwise remain hidden. Through this broad-gauge approach, the book aims, first, to rethink much of the debate around “non-state war economies,” and, secondly, to expand the conversation by consciously treating this theme as a conspicuous and distinct aspect of both economy and war. This is not just a different approach but a fundamental departure from the ways in which current discussions over the economy of wars, civil conflicts, and revolutions, have informed research orientations over several decades.

Introduction: Revisiting Non-State War Economies

Nicola Di Cosmo, Didier Fassin and Clémence Pinaud.

Part I: Frameworks

Chapter 1: What are Non-State War Economies? Prefatory Remarks

Didier Fassin.

Chapter 2: War Economies and War Economics

Christopher Cramer.

Chapter 3: War Economies and Humanitarian Action

Gilles Carbonnier.

Chapter 4: Rebel Taxation. Between Moral and Market Economy

Zachariah Mampilly.

Part II: Historical Perspective

Chapter 5: The War Economy of Nomadic Empires

Nicola Di Cosmo

Chapter 6: Non-State War Economy in Renaissance Italy

William Caferro.

Chapter 7: The Economy of Warlordism in Early Twentieth Century China

Edward McCord.

Part III: Contemporary Worlds

Chapter 8: Friend, Foe, or In-Between? Humanitarian Action and the Soviet-Afghan War

Jonathan Benthall.

Chapter 9: War Economy, Warlordism and Social Class Formation in South Sudan

Clémence Pinaud.

Chapter 10: Resource Wars, Oil and the Islamic State

Philippe Le Billon

Conclusion: New Perspectives on Warring Societ

Nicola Di Cosmo, Didier Fassin and Clémence Pinaud