A Comparative Analysis of Combatants' Economic and Social-Political Power during and after War

贫穷与暴力之间的联系是多方面和复杂的。关于武装冲突的大量全球和区域研究表明，虽然战争在结构（宏观）和个人（微观）层面造成贫困，但贫困本身也是暴力和内战的一个风险因素。研究，特别是来自非洲最不发达国家的研究，强调了这种战争与贫困联系的必然结果：自然资源和战争经济在维持暴力方面的重要性。这些理论现在必须在个人和群体两级有系统地加以检验，以便充分纳入发展干预措施。本项目旨在通过衡量背景下主观和客观的赋权和剥夺赋权，弥合冲突参与的因果理论与日益增长的冲突后发展实证研究之间的差距。它将回答一个最重要的问题：个人在战时与和平时期的机会和经历之间的差异如何影响他们重新融入社会经济、重新诉诸暴力的动机以及摆脱贫困的途径？将特别注意性别关系、军事组织结构和社会网络。关于冲突的最新研究发现，青年男子陷入经济和政治边缘化的循环，据称这种绝望和沮丧促使他们参与暴力。战斗的最终降级使他们回到更加边缘化的地方，没有技能、学校教育或维持和平时期生计所必需的家庭结构。本项目旨在通过对利比里亚、塞拉利昂和刚果民主共和国（DRC）武装团体及其战斗人员、追随者和指挥官的混合方法比较分析，探索和检验这一循环的理论假设。它将阐明武装团体的组织和生存战略，并查明战后的模式和贫穷和暴力的危险因素。将调查支助网络和生存战略，以加强减轻贫穷和建设和平倡议。该项目将包括对三个国家的前战斗人员的调查、社会网络分析、深入的精英访谈和历史分析。利比里亚、塞拉利昂和刚果民主共和国有着相似的旷日持久的区域性冲突——尽管至关重要的是，刚果民主共和国的冲突仍然是零星的和棘手的——但不同的冲突后重返社会政策，特别是在-à-vis前战斗人员纳入武装部队和警察方面，允许进行丰富的跨案例比较。国家和非国家武装团体之间的个案比较将根据战时经验的变化产生严格而有效的政策建议。该项目的一个关键成果将是一个高度整合的研究过程，在设计、分析和传播阶段将国际、地区和当地利益相关者聚集在一起。这种整合将在实证调查中得到呼应，其范围将从最低水平的武装团体支持（步兵、“丛林妻子”和私人保镖）到单独访谈、调查和网络分析中的指挥官和文职首领；在定性访谈中，谈到了区域和国际治理的最高水平。社会网络分析将用于系统地分析这些多层关系和权力结构，它们如何随时间变化，以及嵌入其中的经济和社会生存机会。该项目的所有层次将按性别进行分析，以审查男女之间的生存战略和赋予社会和经济权力或被排斥的机会之间的差异。这标志着在分析结构性不平等以及性别在冲突和冲突后经验中的作用方面的一项重要创新。

The linkages between poverty and violence are multiple and complex. A wealth of global and regional studies of armed conflict show that while war causes poverty, at both the structural (macro-) and individual (micro-) levels, poverty itself is also a risk factor for violence and civil war. Research, particularly from Africa's LDCs, highlights the corollary to this war-poverty nexus: the importance of natural resources and war economies in sustaining violence. These theories must now be systematically tested at the individual and group levels in order to be fully integrated into development interventions. This project aims to bridge the gap between causal theories of conflict participation and the growing empirical research on post-conflict development, by measuring subjective and objective empowerment and disempowerment in context. It will answer the overarching question: How do discrepancies between individuals' wartime and peacetime opportunities and experiences affect their socio-economic reintegration, incentives to revert to violence, and pathways out of poverty?Particular attention will be given to gender relations, military organizational structures, and social networks. The latest research on conflict finds young men caught in cycles of economic and political marginalization, the desperation and frustration of which allegedly spurs participation in violence. Eventual de-escalation of fighting lands them back in further marginalized spaces, without the skills, schooling, or family structures necessary to sustain peacetime livelihoods. This project seeks to explore and test the theoretical assumptions of this cycle through a mixed methods comparative analysis of armed groups and their fighters, followers, and commanders, in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It will elucidate the organizational and survival strategies of armed groups, and identify post-war patterns and risk factors for poverty and violence. Support networks and survival strategies will be investigated for enhancing poverty alleviation and peacebuilding initiatives.The project will consist of a three-country ex-combatant survey, social network analysis, in-depth elite interviews, and historical analysis. Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have had similar protracted, regionalized conflict profiles - though, crucially, the DRC conflict remains sporadic and intractable - but different post-conflict reintegration policies, particularly vis-à-vis ex-combatant incorporation into armed forces and police, that allow for a rich cross-case comparison. Within-case comparisons across state and non-state armed groups will generate rigorous and effective policy recommendations based on variations in wartime experiences. A key outcome of the project will be a highly integrative research process bringing together international, regional, and local stakeholders in the design, analysis, and dissemination phases. This integration will be echoed in the empirical investigation, which will range from the lowest levels of armed group support (foot soldiers, 'bush wives', and personal body guards), to commanders and civilian chiefs in individual interviews, surveys, and network analysis; and in qualitative interviews, to the highest levels of regional and international governance. Social network analysis will be used to systematically analyse these multi-layered relationships and power structures, how they change over time, and the economic and social survival opportunities embedded within them. All levels of the project will be parsed out by gender to examine differences between men's and women's survival strategies and opportunities for social and economic empowerment - or exclusion. This marks a key innovation in the analysis of structural inequality and the role of gender in conflict and post-conflict experiences.