<< This syllabus was prepared for the students of the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS). Due to my appointment (fall 2018) to the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), the course was not taught.

This course serves as a critical interdisciplinary introduction on the study of civil wars and political violence. It intends to provide theoretical and empirical tools to understand key issues related to the use of violence by non-state actors. Since the 1970’s, intra-state conflicts have become the world’s dominant form of warfare, outpacing inter-state wars in their numbers. This type of non-conventional violence raises a number of theoretical questions that will be addressed in the course, such as: why do people rebel? what is the role of religion and ideology in the process? what motivates terrorism and violence against civilians? what kind of governing institutions insurgents are able to build? what are the impacts of diasporas’ involvement in these wars? what explains the success or failure of counterinsurgency campaigns?

The course proposes to use case studies from South Asia in order to address these questions and to test the relevance of the various existing theories in the field. The eight countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation area, which comprise a quarter of the world population, are considered by scholars to be extremely conflictual. They have seen the emergence and the fall of murderous armed insurgencies, such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, jihadist groups in Kashmir, Khalistan fighters in Punjab, Maoist successful insurgency in Nepal, the Taliban in Pakistan. A series of longstanding low intensity conflicts also fragilize the democratic construct of the region. These range from communal riots in Gujarat and in the Hindi belt, to Shia-Sunni sectarian killings in Pakistan, and include Naxalite guerrillas and state-sponsored militias in India’s tribal belt, nativist and tribal infeudation in Pakistani North-West Frontier Province.

The region is surprisingly not very present in the general literature about civil conflicts. But conflicts in South Asia are in many aspects highly relevant to address the broader interrogations of the academic and policy debates on civil wars. The region is indeed characterized by the pervasiveness of identity politics, high degrees of religious polarization, the presence of important natural resources, highly militarized states as well as large waves of migrations. Elements usually understood as key variables to explain the onset and nature of civil conflict.

This course first aims at helping students gain a comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of the main themes related to non-conventional violence. It also intends to provide them with an overview of South Asian security and political issues. More generally, the conference intends to help students acquire both the methodological and conceptual tools necessary to successfully complete different types of oral and written assignments. Finally, the course contains an important interactive dimension and will strongly encourage students to participate in class discussions. Core readings for each session are marked with a star (*).

Session 1. Definition of the concepts at hands

Underlying questions: What is the difference between reformist and revolutionary contentious movements? What is a civil war? An insurgency? A terrorist movement?

Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow (2015) Contentious Politics, Oxford University Introduction.

Moghadam, Assaf, Ronit Berger, and Polina Beliakova (2014) “Say Terrorist, Think Insurgent: Labeling and Analyzing Contemporary Terrorist Actors,” Perspectives on Terrorism 8(5).

Rojas, Rene and Goodwin, Jeff. “Revolutions.” The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements (1995). Sambanis, Nicholas (2004) “What Is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an Operational Definition” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 48, No. 6 (Dec.), pp. 814-858.

Stathis Kalyvas (2006) The Logic of Violence in Civil War, New York: Cambridge U Press,

Session 2. Why do people rebel?

Underlying questions: (1) The greed vs grievances debate & (2) the concept of ethnic conflict

Brubaker, Rogers, (2004) Ethnicity Without Groups, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni. Press, 2004, Ch 1, “Ethnicity Without Groups,” pp. 7-27.

Fauad M Hatmi, (2012) Greed and Grievance Models: Another Lens for Kashmiri Freedom Struggle, BiblioScholar. Introduction. Harjot S Oberoi (1987) “From Punjab to ‘Khalistan’; Territoriality and Metacommentary,” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 60, Spring, pp. 59-72. Matthew J. Webb (2015) “Khalistan & Kashmir: A Tale of Two Conflicts”, Journal of Punjab Studies – Volume 22.

Rajshree Jetly (2008) “The Khalistan Movement in India: The Interplay of Politics and State Power” International Review of Modern Sociology Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 61-75.

Stathis Kalyvas, “‘New’ and ‘old’ civil wars: A valid distinction?”, In World Politics 54:1, 2001, 99-118.

Sumit Ganguly, (1996) “Explaining the Kashmir Insurgency: Political Mobilization and Institutional Decay”, International Security, Vol. 21, no. 2.

Virginia Van Dyke (2009) “The Khalistan Movement in Punjab, India, and the Post-Militancy Era: Structural Change and New Political Compulsions” Asian Survey Vol. 49, No. 6 (November/December), pp. 975-997

Zutshi, Chitralekha. (2012) “Whither Kashmir Studies?: A Review.” Modern Asian Studies 46.04: 1033-1048.

Avidit Acharya (2009) “The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal and the Political Economy of Violence”, in The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: Revolution in the 21st Century, Anup Pahari, Mahendra Lawoti, , London: Routledge.

Fearon, James, and David Laitin (2003) “Ethnicity, Insurgency and Civil War,” American Political Science Review 97(1): 75-90.

Gilles Boquerat (2009) “Maoism and the Ethnic Factor in Nepal’s People’s War” In Armed Militias of South Asia: Fundamentalists, Maoists, and Separatists by Christophe Jaffrelot, Laurent Gayer (eds.).

Gilley, Bruce (2004) “Against the concept of ethnic conflict”, Third World Quarterly, 25, No. 6, pp. 1155–1166.

Mahendra Lawoti, Susan Hangen (2013) Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal: Identities and Mobilization After 1990, Introduction: “Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal.”

Tiwari, Biswa Nath (2010) “Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Conflict in Nepal,” Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 28: No. 1, Article 3.

Session 3. The role of religion in political violence

Anuja Bose (2009) “Hindutva and the Politicization of Religious Identity” in India Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development, Issue 13, February

Cavanaugh, W T. (2004). “The Violence of “Religion”: Examining a Prevalent Myth, Working Paper no.310. Indiana, USA: The Helen Kellogg Institute for International

Jaffrelot, Christophe (2008) “Hindu Nationalism and the (Not So Easy) Art of Being Outraged: The Ram Setu Controversy” South Asia Multidisciplinary Journal SAMAJ N°2

Jaffrelot, Christophe (2007) “The 2002 pogrom in Gujarat: the post-9/11 face of Hindu nationalist anti-Muslim violence”. In Religion and Violence in South Asia. Theory and practice ed. by Hinnells J. and King R. London New York Routledge

King, R. (2007) “The association of ‘religion’ with violence: reflections on a modern trope”. In: Hinnells, J.R. and King, R. (eds.) Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. Routledge: London, UK, pp. 226-257

Varshney, Ashutosh, (2000) Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, New Haven: Yale University Press, Chapters 1-2, pp. 3-54

Session 4. Rebel governance: insurgents’ institutions

Joanne Richards An Institutional History of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), The Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Working Paper, 2014

Mampilly C (2011), Rebel rulers, Cornell University Press. Introduction: “Governing Rebels”

Mampilly Z. C. (2011), Rebel rulers, Cornell University Press. Chapter 2: “Bandits, Warlords, Embryonic States, Black Spots, and Ungoverned Territories: The Unwieldy Taxonomy of Rebel-Governed Areas”

and Chap 4: “The Two Faces of the Tiger: Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam”

Building the Tamil Eelam State: Emerging State Institutions and Forms of Governance in LTTE-Controlled Areas in Sri Lanka, Kristian Stokke, Third World Quarterly Vol. 27, No. 6 (2006), pp. 1021-1040

Session 5. The role of ideology in civil wars

Chandra, Uday, and Atreyee Majumder (2013) “The ethics of self-making in postcolonial India.”. South Asia Multidisciplinary Journal

SAMAJ N°7.

Donner, Henrike (2004) “The significance of Naxalbari: accounts of personal involvement and politics in West Bengal.” Occasional paper 14, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge, UK.

Kaviraj, Sudipta. “Marxism in translation: critical reflections on Indian radical thought.” Political Judgment: Essays for John Dunn (2009): 172-199.

Shah, Alpa (2010) In the shadows of the state: Indigenous politics, environmentalism, and insurgency in Jharkhand, India. Duke University Press. Chapter 3

Shah, A. (2013). “Land, Labour and Capital: agrarian transformation in a Maoist guerrilla zone in India”. Journal of Agrarian Change, 13 (3): 424-450.

Shah, Alpa. (2014) “‘The muck of the past’: revolution, social transformation, and the Maoists in India.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 20.2. pp. 337-356.

Wood and Gutierrez Sanin (2014) “Ideology in civil war: Instrumental adoption and beyond”. Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 51(2) 213–226.

Session 6. Terrorism:  Insurgents resorting to terrorism

Bloom, Mia. (2005). Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror. Columbia University Press. Chapter 3: “Ethnic Conflict, State Terror and Suicide Bombing in Sri Lanka.”

Goodwin, Jeff (2006) “A Theory of Categorical Terrorism”, Social Forces, Volume 84, Number 4, June. Jamwal, N. S. (2003). “Terrorists’ Modus Operandi in Jammu and Kashmir.” Strategic Analysis, 27(3): 382-403. Kalyvas N. (2004) “The Paradox of Terrorism in Civil War.” Journal of Ethics 8:1, 97-138.

Marks, Thomas A. (2017) “Terrorism as Method in Nepali Maoist Insurgency, 1996–2016”. Small Wars & Insurgencies, Volume 28, 2017 – Issue 1. pp. 81-118.

Pape, R. A. (2003). “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.” The American Political Science Review 97 (3): 343-361.

Samaranayake, G. (2007) “Political terrorism of the LTTE in Sri Lanka,” Journal of South Asian Studies, Volume 30, Issue 1, pp. 171-183.

Session 7. Women at war: female fighters in insurgencies

Gayer, Laurent. (2012) “’Princesses’ among The ‘Lions’: The Militant Careers Of Sikh Female Fighters.” Sikh Formations 8.1: 1-19. Manchanda, Rita, ed. (2001) Women, war and peace in South Asia: From victimhood to agency. Delhi: Sage. Chapter 1: “Where Are the Women in South Asian Conflicts?”

Mangalika de Silva, (1994) “Women in the LTTE: Liberation or Subjugation?”, Pravada 3/7.

Ness, Cindy, ed. (2008) Female militancy and terrorism. Oxford: Routledge. Introduction. and Chapter 2: “Guns and Burqa: Women in the Kashmir Conflict,” Rita Manchanda

Seema Shekhawat and Chayanika Saxena (2015) “Victims or Victimizers? Naxal Women, Violence and the Reinvention of Patriarchy”  In

Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace by Seema Shekhawat (ed.), pp 117-131.

Stack-O’Connor, A. (2007) “Lions, Tigers, and Freedom Birds: How and Why the LTTE Employs Women,” Terrorism and Political Violence,

Volume 19, Issue 1, pp 43-63.

Vandana Bhatia, W. Andy Knight (2011) “Female Suicide Terrorism in South Asia: Comparing the Tamil Separatists and Kashmir Insurgents,” South Asian Survey, 18(1) 7–26.

Session 8. Diasporas and homeland conflicts: peace-makers or peace-breakers?

Adamson, Fiona (2013) “Mechanisms of diaspora mobilization and the transnationalization of civil war” in Transnational Dynamics of Civil War by Checkel J. T., Cambridge University Press.

Cathrine Brun & Nicholas Van Hear (2012) “Between the local and the diasporic: the shifting centre of gravity in war-torn Sri Lanka’s transnational politics”, Contemporary South Asia, 20:1, 61-75.

Christine Fair (2005) “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies: Insights from the Khalistan and Tamil Eelam Movements,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 11, No. 1, April, pp. 125-56.

Laurent Gayer (2002) “The Globalization of Identity Politics. The Sikh Experience” Ceri Sciences Po.

Mark Lafey and Suthaharan Nadarajah (2012) “The hybridity of liberal peace: States, diasporas and insecurity”, Security Dialogue 43(5) 403–420.

Pirkkalainen, P. and Abdile M. (2009) “The Diaspora – Conflict – Peace – Nexus: A Literature Review”. Diaspeace, Working Paper N°1,

Session 9. Counterinsurgency: winning hearts and minds?

George Packer (2006) “Knowing the Enemy,” The New Yorker, December 18,

Hussain, Zahid (2007) Frontline Pakistan: the struggle with militant Islam, London: I.B. Tauris

Jacob Shapiro & C Christine Fair (2010) “Understanding Support for Islamist Militancy in Pakistan,” International Security, 34:3 (Winter), 79-118.

Johnston, P.B., and A. Sarbahi (2011) “The Impact of US Drone Strikes on Terrorism in Pakistan.”

Karl Eikenberry (2013) “The Limits of Counterinsurgency Doctrine in Afghanistan: The Other Side of Coin,” Foreign Affairs.

Tellis, Ashley J. (2007) “Pakistan – Conflicted Ally in the War on Terror”, in Carnegy Endowment for International Peace, Policy Brief 56, dec

“Pakistan fight against terrorism”(2010) in East Asian Strategic Review, The National Institute for Defense Studies, Japan, pp. 39-68 Riedel, Bruce (2008) “Pakistan and Terror: the Eye of the Storm”, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, AAPSS, 618, July pp. 31-45

Session 10. Post-conflict reconstruction: how to end a war?

Braithwaite, J. (2015) “Gender, Class, Resilient Power: Nepal Lessons in Transformation”. Canberra: RegNet Research Paper No. 92, Regulatory Institutions Network.

Diaz FA and Murshed SM (2013) “‘Give War A Chance’: All-Out War as a Means of Ending Conflict in the Cases of Sri Lanka and Colombia”.

Civil Wars 15(3): 281–305.

Goodhand J and Korf B (2011) “Caught in the Peace Trap?” In: Goodhand J, Korf B and Spencer J Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. London: Routledge, pp. 1-15.

Julia Strasheim (2017) “The Politics of Institutional Reform and Post-Conflict Violence in Nepal” GIGA Working Papers N° 296.

Kristine Höglund & Camilla Orjuela (2011) “Winning the peace: conflict prevention after a victor’s peace in Sri Lanka”, Contemporary Social Science, 6:1, 19-37.

Richmond OP (2006) “The Problem of Peace: Understanding the ‘Liberal Peace’”. Conflict, Security & Development 6(3): 291–314. Sanchez Palacio, (2015) “Challenges in the Nepalese Constitutional Process: Federalism, Ethnicity and Representation”. Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 48(2): 165–186.