Militias and the Challenges of Post-Conflict Peace Silencing the Guns

Militias have proven to be a consistent and enduring challenge to achieving peace in war zones around the world. Whether armed by embattled governments in defence of their territory or fostered by external actors in the interests of greed or grievance, these groups occupy an uncertain and deeply controversial position in the changing landscape of conflict. Linked variously to atrocities against civilians or international criminal elements, part of what distinguishes them from more traditional combatants is their willingness to engage in violent tactics that defy international norms as well as a proclivity to embrace expediency in alliance-making. As such, their diversity of form, unorthodox nature and sheer numbers make achieving short-term stability and an enduring peace a consistently difficult proposition.Bringing together the lessons learned from four intensively-researched case studies - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and Sudan - the book argues that the overly rigid 'cookie-cutter' approach to demilitaristation, developed and commonly implemented presently by the international community, is ineffective at meeting the myriad of challenges involving militias. In doing so, the authors propose a radical new framework for demilitarization that questions conventional models and takes into account on-the-ground realities.

Chris Alden is a Reader at the Department of International Relations, London School of Economics.  Monika Thakur is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Canada. Matthew Arnold graduated from the Department of International Relations, London School of Economics. He is currently working as a freelance journalist.

“Alden, Thakur and Arnold have done a service to the fields of security studies and peace studies. This book sheds new light on how to cope with the challenge posed by militias in conflict environments, drawing on local research in southern Sudan and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Afghanistan and Timor-Leste.” -- Sumantra Bose, Professor of International and Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science
“This impressive volume combines cutting-edge theoretical insights with original qualitative findings from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Timor-Leste. Taken together, Alden, Thakur and Arnold offer readers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of militia groups and signal a number of innovative ways to promote local security.” -- Robert Muggah, Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and Research Director of the Small Arms Survey, Switzerland