Insurgent Cultures: World Literatures and Violence from the Global South (2025)

FROM LOCAL GRIEVANCES TO VIOLENT INSURGENCY

Bibliography 70 4 FROM LOCAL GRIEVANCES TO VIOLENT INSURGENCY FROM LOCAL GRIEVANCES TO VIOLENT INSURGENCY 5 This report responds to the question of how we might approach and understand the Boko Haram insurgency. In providing an answer, the report addresses three main controversies within the field of Boko Haram studies. First, whether local grievances or religious radicalisation is the main driver of the insurgency. Second, to what extent Boko Haram is mainly a local/national or regional/international group. Finally, to what extent Boko Haram and their leaders act according to a well-planned military strategy or on a more ad hoc basis. The report explores how these diverging perspectives co-exist. How to approach Boko Haram depends upon how Boko Haram and their activities are framed. Thus, a main argument of the report is that framing Boko Haram as part of a larger regional terrorist threat may mobilise support for Western military operations. If defined only as militant jihadists operating in "an arc of terrorism" it may seem as if a military response is the only right one. However, religious political violence cannot be addressed through military means alone but requires a comprehensive approach including separate socio-economic perspectives on contending incitements to engage in illicit economic activities and terrorism. Since the inauguration of a regional multinational joint task force with considerable support from international security actors in January 2015, attacks in Nigeria's neighbouring countries have increased remarkably. Thus, it appears as if more international and regional military responses are contributing to the strengthening of the group. In view of this development, we want to bring forward the claim that according to the logic of retaliation that Boko Haram seems to predominately obey, there is a dynamic and mutually constitutive relationship between the way in which EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 FROM LOCAL GRIEVANCES TO VIOLENT INSURGENCY FROM LOCAL GRIEVANCES TO VIOLENT INSURGENCY 7 the Nigerian state, its neighbouring countries and the international community names and frames responses to Boko Haram, and the way in which Boko Haram operates and stages itself as a global jihadist group.

South Asian History and Culture New histories of political violence and revolutionary terrorism in modern South Asia

South Asia: History and Culture, 2019

This book round table discusses two recent monographs on political violence and revolutionary terrorism in late colonial India, Kama

New histories of political violence and revolutionary terrorism in modern South Asia

South Asian History and Culture, 2019

This book round table discusses two recent monographs on political violence and revolutionary terrorism in late colonial India, Kama

The Practice of War: Production, Reproduction, and Communication of Armed Violence. Aparna Rao, Michael Bollig, and Monika Böck, eds. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. 2007.

Ethos 37: 1–4., 2009

Looking at Conflict Patterns: Declining Frequencies yet Persistent Brutalities in both Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Conflicts

Forum of EthnoGeoPolitics Vol.3 No.2, Autumn 2015, pp.9-25, 2015

What brutalises rebels? What makes them cruel, or makes them do things that we consider cruel and immoral? That is a primary question—which can be put to all kinds of armed actors—of my research on rebels and rebellion, i.e. the “violent opposition to the ruler, government regime[,] or state for any personal, collective or ideological purpose” (Ten Dam 2015a: 6 (quote), 15). Arguably, rebels or insurgents are the most important and dominant kind of armed non-state actors. After all, without rebels, no rebellions. The question of brutalisation i.e. increasing resort to violence that violates local and/or international norms—that I hold are ultimately based on conscience, empathy and honour (Ten Dam 2014: 8-9)—is of prime importance to the field of conflict studies in general and to the “emerging multidisciplinary field” of ethnogeopolitics (Rezvani 2013: 4) in particular.1 Apparently, most conflicts are internal, insurgent, ethnic and separatist in nature, and one wishes to prevent or curtail the suffering involved.

Conflict Patterns Revisited: Trends, Frequencies, Types and Brutalities in both Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Conflicts

Forum of EthnoGeoPolitics, 2017

What brutalises rebels? What makes them cruel, or makes them do things that we consider cruel and immoral? That is a primary question of my research on rebels and rebellion, i.e. the “violent opposition to the ruler, government regime[,] or state for any personal, collective or ideological purpose” (Ten Dam 2015a: 6 (quote),15). Arguably, rebels or insurgents are the most important and dominant kind of armed non-state actors. After all, without rebels, no rebellions. The question of brutalisation—which can be put to all kinds of armed actors—is of prime importance to the field of conflict studies in general and to the “emerging multidisciplinary field” of ethnogeopolitics (Rezvani 2013a: 4) in particular. NB: This article is an updated, expanded and improved version of the article by the same author that appeared in the Autumn 2015 issue of this journal titled ‘Looking at Conflict Patterns: Declining Frequencies yet Persistent Brutalities in both Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Conflicts’ (Vol 3. No.2, pp.9-23), partially in response to the two Critical Responses i.e. open peer-reviews in the same issue (Ibid, pp.24-25).

VIOLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA REASSESSED

pp. £45.00 hardback. ISBN 0-85255-973-9 (hardback); £16.95 paperback. ISBN 0-85255-972-0 (paperback).

Dangerous Groups and Perilous Ideas: Notes toward an anthropological understanding of terrorism

International Conference: Political Ecologies of Conflict, Capitalism and Contestation. Wageningen University, 2016

We are currently living in an era where armed conflicts involving non-state actors are increasing. These actors, whether labeled as freedom fighters, ethnic militias, or terrorists, raise significant questions about their origins and motivations. While the literature tends to narrowly focus on acts of terrorism, I argue that we must take a broader approach that understands it as part of families of concepts, including power and legitimacy, crime and punishment, injustice and resistance. To gain a comprehensive understanding, we need to distinguish between state and non-state forms of terrorism and examine it as part of a broader range of interconnected phenomena. These include war, blood feuds, gangs, organized crime, messianic and revitalized movements, secret societies, cults, ritual, and religion, I hope this paper will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of terrorism. This approach has its roots in Malinowski (1941) who adovacated using a holistic approach that examined 1 societies as integrated wholes rather than isolated parts, and using a comparative approach to identify patterns, social structures, and cultural norms that were common across different societies. Greenberg 2016

Essays about Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Asia

Insurgent violence and the colonial present

Political Geography, 2008