Christopher Day. The Fates of African Rebels: Victory, Defeat, and the Politics of Civil War. Lynne Rienner, 2019. 220 pp. Bibliography. Index. $27.50. Paperback. ISBN: 9781626377646.
Year: 2026
Type: book-review
Abstract: Civil wars, by their nature, are inherently complex political phenomena and have attracted the attention of numerous scholars.A major vein of research is focused on understanding how these conflicts end, driven in part by policymakers desiring insights into the conditions that make for a durable peace in societies torn apart by civil war.In The Fates of African Rebels: Victory, Defeat and the Politics of Civil War, Christopher Day makes a valuable policy-relevant addition to the field.The book broadens our understanding of civil war outcomes from simple categorization of win/lose/negotiated settlement to one that better explains the fates of rebel groups in Africa's contemporary conflicts by shifting the unit of analysis from the conflict itself to the trajectories of rebel organizations over the course of the conflict.From this point of departure, Day argues that the principal factor that explains rebel group trajectories-from the latent stages of a civil war through the conflict's termination-is the degree to which these groups were rooted in prewar authority structures.This notion of "political embeddedness" highlights the ability of rebel leaders to stake a claim for political legitimacy, bring in resources, and organize their rebellion.By bringing in existing political networks needed for mobilization, along with greater technical and military skills that enable strong leadership and organization of a rebellion, rebel leaders with high degrees of political embeddedness set themselves up with a strong chance of victory against the state.In contrast, those rebel groups with low political embeddedness are often political outsiders, possessing smaller patronage networks and having a limited appeal to the broader society, diminishing their probability of victory.Not only does political embeddedness point to how rebel groups grow and operate, but it also explains the strategies that incumbent regimes take in response.Combining this logic with an analysis of military capacity between rebels and regimes, Day presents four possible outcomes for African rebellions.Embedded rebels can either attain "victory by domination" if evenly matched with the state or achieve "victory by incorporation" into the state's power structures.On the other hand, outsider rebels can attain "victory by domination" if they can overcome the state militarily, "defeat by elimination" if unable to overcome the state, or "defeat by disintegration" as the group yields to internal fragmentation.
Source: African Studies Review
Author: Sean McClure
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7122917619
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