For this month’s What We Are Reading, the RESOLVE Network surveys the literature on militias, vigilantes, armed groups, communal security-providers, and non-state conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. This month, RESOLVE launched a new research and convening project with USAID on Community-Based Armed Groups (CBAGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The digest includes academic articles and datasets that map the Sub-Saharan security landscape, governance networks, the identity dynamics of non-state armed actors, their legitimacy, and ways to address political violence. Click the links to learn more.

Academic studies on non-state armed actors 

Staniland, Paul. “Militias, Ideology and the State” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2015 March 30. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002715576749?journalCode=jcrb  

Walther, Olivier. “Cross border Co operation Networks in West Africa” West African Papers, No. 06, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017 June. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/cross-border-co-operation-networks-in-west-africa_73298292-en  

Hofmann, Claudia. “Engaging non State armed groups in humanitarian action” International Peacekeeping, 2006 november 24. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13533310600824090 

International Committee of the Red Cross. “Engaging Armed Groups” International Review of the Red Cross, 2011 september. https://www.icrc.org/en/international-review/engaging-armed-groups 

Reno, William. “Protecters and Predators: WHy is There a Difference among West Africa Militias? Palgrave Studies in Governance, Security, and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2007. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230605572_5#citeas 

Reno, William. “The Changing Nature of Warfare and the Absence of State-Building in West Africa” Cambridge University Press. November 2019. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/irregular-armed-forces-and-their-role-in-politics-and-state-formation/the-changing-nature-of-warfare-and-the-absence-of-state-building-in-west-africa/EC75FAF7BF36B903B04BA9A28F4E28B1 

Stanton, Jessica A. “Regulating Militias: Governments, Militias, and Civilian Targeting in Civil War” Journal of Conflict Resolution, April 14, 2015. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002715576751?journalCode=jcrb 

Stewart, Megan A.“Civil War as State-Making: Strategic Governance in Civil War” International Organization, 20 November 2017. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818317000418 

Lawrence, Michael. “Towards a Non-State Security Sector Reform Strategy” Centre for International Governance Innovation SSR Issue Papers No. 8, May 2012. https://www.cigionline.org/publications/towards-non-state-security-sector-reform-strategy 

Davis, Diane E. “Non-State Armed Actors, New Imagined Communities, and Shifting Patterns of Sovereignty and Insecurity in the Modern World” Contemporary Security Policy, 12 Aug 2009. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13523260903059757 

Tull, Denis M., and Andreas Mehler. “The hidden costs of power-sharing: Reproducing insurgent violence in Africa “ African Affairs, Volume 104, Issue 416, 1 July 2005, Pages 375–398. https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/104/416/375/85356  

Straus, Scott. “Wars do end! Changing patterns of political violence in sub-Saharan Africa” African Affairs, Volume 111, Issue 443, 1 April 2012, Pages 179–201. https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/111/443/179/17247  

Schuberth, Moritz.“The Challenge of Community-Based Armed Groups: Towards a Conceptualization of Militias, Gangs, and Vigilantes” Contemporary Security Policy, 03 Jul 2015. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13523260.2015.1061756?journalCode=fcsp20 

Schuberth, Moritz. “Hybrid security governance, post-election violence and the legitimacy of community-based armed groups in urban Kenya” Journal of Eastern African Studies, March 25 2018. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17531055.2018.1457277 

Datasets on non-state conflict and political violence 

Campbell, John. “Sub-Saharan Security Tracker” CFR, March, 2018. https://www.cfr.org/africa-sub-saharan/sub-saharan-security-tracker/p37884 

Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), 2018. https://www.acleddata.com/data/  2018 

Carey, Sabine, and Neil Mitchell. “Repression And The Escalation Of Violence” Pro-Government Militias, 2008. http://www.sabinecarey.com/militias/