Don’t Let Peace Down: Ex-combatant Resilience to Reintegration Failures

• In Event: Reintegration after Civil Wars

Abstract

Ex-combatants regularly encounter structural barriers to successful reintegration and many of these obstacles are often linked government non-compliance with signed peace agreements. While armed conflict is often linked to reintegration failures, there is ample evidence that ex-combatants respond with various forms of nonviolent collective organizing. Based on 72 interviews with former fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), an insurgent group that disarmed in 2017, this paper analyzes the nonviolent collective strategies of ex-combatants to prevent the collapse of peace and advance their reintegration process. The paper identifies a continuum of nonviolent strategies defined by the extent to which ex-combatants rely on the state to solve their reintegration challenges. On one extreme, ex-combatant organize to make collective claims directed at the state. On the other extreme, ex-combatants organize autonomously to solve their needs. Drawing on the social movements and peace studies literature, the paper develops a theoretical framework linking these different strategies to opening political opportunities and ex-combatant relations with their former commanders. Finally, the paper explores implications of these strategies for restorative peace by reinforcing state authority or for transformative peace building by constructing new sources of power.

Author

• Susan Brewer-Osorio, University of Arizona