Sociologists, political scientists, and economists have long emphasized the benefits of
monopolizing violence and the risks of failing to do so. Yet recent research on conflict, state …

Militias are an empirical phenomenon that has been overlooked by current research on civil
war. Yet, it is a phenomenon that is crucial for understanding political violence, civil war, post …

Debates over how governments can defeat insurgencies ebb and flow with international
events, becoming particularly contentious when the United States encounters problems in its …

This article examines how civilian defense militias shape violence during civil war. We
define civilian defense forces as a sedentary and defensive form of pro-government militia …

In Bullets Not Ballots, Jacqueline L. Hazelton challenges the claim that winning" hearts and
minds" is critical to successful counterinsurgency campaigns. Good governance, this …

Militias and rebels depart from different angles when it comes to the politics of legitimacy.
While rebels have to address the issue of legitimacy early on in order to gain popular …

Do foreign occupiers face less resistance when they increase the level of native governing
authority? Although this is a central question within the literature on foreign occupation and …

Abstract In Thailand, India, Libya, and elsewhere, governments arm the populace or call up
volunteers in irregular armed groups despite the risks this entails. The widespread presence …

Why do communities form militias to defend themselves against violence during civil war?
Using original interviews with former combatants and civilians and archival material from …

Most studies of pro-government militias (PGMs) take a narrowly functionalist approach. This
article sees PGMs as the product of broader processes of state formation and regime …