Browsing by Subject "Armed conflict"

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Civil war and agrarian contexts. Land accumulation, rebel groups’ behavior, and collective action post-war in Colombia
(2021) Navarrete Cruz, Angela Patricia; Birner, Regina
Agriculture in developing countries is especially vulnerable to social and political constraints, particularly, to armed conflict and violence. Intrastate conflict, which accounts for the majority of violent conflicts since the second half of the 20th century, occurs mainly in the rural areas of these countries. In 2018, 52 intrastate conflicts were active in 36 countries, most of them with the potentiality to spark large-scale violence. Around 79.5 million people fled from their homes, 100 civilians were killed a day, and 60% of the food-insecure people worldwide lived-in war-torn areas. Intrastate conflicts greatly affect rural areas and have deep agrarian roots. Civil war onset, for instance, is usually anchored in unfair land distribution patterns and land tenure regimes that originate peasant grievances that give place to large-scale violence. The rural scenario in which civil wars occur also offers a suitable environment for insurgent activities (e.g., complex geography far from the radar of the state), funding sources (e.g., looting of natural resources), and a source of combatants (e.g., aggrieved peasants). However, the nexus between violent conflict and rural areas in the developing world is not straightforward. Moreover, intrastate conflicts unevenly affect local contexts and subsequently, their effects on agriculture and the livelihoods of rural inhabitants are unequal at the sub-national level. This means that the processes through which armed conflict and agriculture dovetail in developing countries emerge under certain conditions and must be grasped at various scales, including the local level. In order to understand these processes, this cumulative dissertation aims at exploring the intersections between civil war and the agrarian settings in which they occur. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. First, different paths through which armed conflict influences agrarian societies and the livelihoods of people living in rural areas are discerned. Complementary, the theoretical implications of having rural areas as the main scenario of both civil war and peacebuilding processes are examined. A qualitative approach bearing on a case study was applied, by focusing on Colombia, where a protracted armed conflict has created around eight million victims and 260,000 casualties. Three main gaps found in the literature are tackled in each of the articles that compounds the thesis: first, how land is accumulated in wartime. Second, why the behavior of one rebel group varies across its territories of influence. Third, why collective action is possible post-war. Regarding the first question, land accumulation dynamics during civil wars are poorly understood because the land-violent conflict nexus has been constructed around linear causations that go from aggrieved peasants to violence. In focusing on the mechanisms of land dispossession in Colombia, defined as land usurpation by taking advantage of the context of widespread violence that civil war spawns, this paper aims to shed light on how land is accumulated during an armed conflict. Based on a literature review, more than 50 different methods for dispossessing land are identified. The methods show how actors develop complex strategies for profiting from the civil war setting -often depicted as irrational-; how violent conflict benefits more certain sectors of the agrarian elites than the peasantry that initiates it; and how rural inequality is reinforced in civil war with the support of state institutions and bureaucracy. Concerning the second question, wartime social order has shown that civil wars are not exclusively chaotic but are complex phenomena that unevenly affect local contexts. Important evidence for order in civil wars are the governance regimes established by insurgents to manage civilians’ affairs. However, even if this is a desirable outcome for rebel groups, not all of them are able to build such regimes, and even armed groups that succeed are often unable to do so across their entire territory of influence. Instead, rebels also negotiate agreements with civilians and local authorities, or simply deal with disorder. Why? This paper explores the factors influencing these various outcomes by focusing on three neighboring territories in southern Tolima, Colombia, where the former communist guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army – FARC-EP was present for more than 50 years. The results lessen the assumptions of current theories on determinants of rebel governance, identifying that the behavior of rebel groups varies according to its own strategies and resources, intersected with the strategies and resources of the actors they interact with (whether civilians, other armed actors, or incumbent governments) in specific territories. The active role of both civilians and the state, often neglected by the explanations on the determinants of both rebel governance and the diversity of behaviors deployed by the same armed actor, is underscored. Situational, organizational, ideational, and strategic factors shaped the possibility for rebel groups to establish order or, on the contrary, to engage in widespread violence in specific locales. Regarding the third question, civil wars hit rural areas intensely and Rural Producer Organizations (RPO) -as forms of long-term collective action or cooperation among small farmers- are considered essential for peacebuilding. However, the factors underpinning the formation and performance of RPO post-war are unclear. Based on a case study in the municipality of Planadas, Colombia, where the former communist guerrilla FARC-EP was formed and several associations flourished post-war, this article identifies 14 contextual factors facilitating the rise of RPO. Contrasting the findings with variables identified by collective action, commons theory, and literature on RPO, it was determined that four additional contextual variables play a critical role in RPO development post-war, namely, legacies of war, resilience strategies, institutional intermediaries, and discourses. Legacies of war refer to the vestiges left by the kind of relationship developed between the main armed actor and the civilians in wartime. Economic activity as a resilience strategy indicates civilians’ strategies to stay aside from the confrontation, reducing the probability of being harmed and preventing their involvement in the war or illegal economic activities. Intermediary institutions are third-party organizations that influence RPO. In the case considered, this role was developed by certification schemes known as Voluntary Sustainability Standards. Controverting critical literature on the effects of the standards, the results suggest that they can enhance self-organizing capacities post-conflict at the local level. Finally, discourses refer to additional incentives for RPO development regarding what participants consider valuable beyond economic benefits, in this case, environmental protection. Consequently, the article presents the foundations of an expanded framework to understand and foster RPO growth in post-war settings. To qualify our understanding of civil war is imperative in a world at the edge of new forms of violence. Knowledge that illuminates public policies attempting to strengthen food systems, alleviate poverty, decrease inequalities, and build a more peaceful world, is fundamental for the future of humankind. This dissertation is intended to be a contribution in this path.