Living to Fight Each Other Another Day: Armed Group Relationships in Multiparty Civil Wars

Multiparty civil wars are often portray­ed as zones of anar­chy, where numerous actors with different loyal­ties and goals battle each other in a Hobbesian war of all against all. However, we also see a lot of meaning­ful cooperation between armed groups in many civil wars. For instance, in 1999, five diverse groups formed the Liberians United for Reconci­liation and Demo­cracy, which forced Charles Taylor into exile in 2003. From 2004 onwards, Mogadishu’s twelve subclan courts consoli­dated into one organiza­tional body, the Islamic Courts Union, which became the de facto govern­ment in southern and central Somalia by 2006. So, how did stable relation­ships between armed actors emerge after all?

Living to Fight Each Other Another Day challenges conven­tional views on armed group alliances and infight­ing in multi­party civil wars. It intro­duces a more general under­standing of armed group relation­ships that may exist for groups using a range of organi­zational forms and structures, with varying ideo­logies and conflict goals, and operating in a range of civil wars. The book explains under which conditions the diverse groups involved in these wars can co­operate, why and how various types of co­operative relation­ships between armed actors emerge, and what impact co­operation and its break­down have on the course of the war. The book then conducts an in-depth empirical analysis of the Syrian civil war to substan­tiate the argument. It also further tests the argument using structured case studies of armed group cooperation and con­flict across the globe and in different periods. 

The book draws on a range of evidence that combines deep insights into one case with an analysis of broader patterns: nearly 90 interviews in Arabic with parti­cipants in the Syrian insur­gency; data on inter-rebel cease­fire and peace agree­ments; a database of military operations in the Syrian civil war since 2011; and a data­set of all multi­party civil wars after 1945 compiled by the author.