Politicising the rebel governance paradigm. Critical appraisal and expansion of a research agenda

Abstract The introduction to the special issue starts from the observation that the political nature of rebel governance is so far understudied. Moving beyond the functionalism and instrumentalism inherent in parts of the literature, we propose a politicisation of the rebel governance paradigm through a spatial and temporal widening of analytical approaches. To address the methodological localism of existing research, rebel governance should be studied across actors and scales, as well as through their interlinkages. Taking time seriously, it also has to be investigated as a sequential phenomenon, at different conflict stages and with regard to its legacies in post-conflict settings.