AFRICA BREAKFAST | Civil Resistance and Rebel Governance in Côte d’Ivoire

Mercredi 28 avril 2021

AFRICA BREAKFAST | Online

Organised by IRSEM

Civil Resistance and Rebel Governance in Côte d’Ivoire

April 28th, 2021

Why is rebel governance more responsive to civilians in some areas than in others? In this presentation, Sebastian van Baalen will present new research that seeks to explain local variation in rebel governance responsiveness. Rebel responsiveness refers to the degree to which rebels are soliciting and acting upon civilian preferences in the way in which they govern. The study focuses on rebel governance by the Forces Nouvelles in Côte d’Ivoire between 2002 and 2010, and builds on a combination of in-depth field research, survey research, and a unique dataset of civil resistance in rebel-held Côte d’Ivoire. The main conclusion of the study is that rebel governance was more responsive in areas with strong local elites capable of amassing civil resistance against the rebels, than in areas with weak local elites. The study’s findings have important implications for the protection of civilians in civil war.

Speaker: Sebastian van Baalen (PhD)

Sebastian van Baalen (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden. He currently works on several research projects related to rebel governance, electoral violence, the urban dynamics of postwar violence, civil resistance against armed actors, and the dynamics of restraint in civil war. His book project Resistance and Responsiveness in Rebel Regimes examines how civilians shape patterns of rebel governance in civil war, with a focus on the Ivorian civil war. Sebastian received his PhD in January 2021 for his dissertation Guns and Governance: Local Elites and Rebel Governance in Côte d’Ivoire, and has won several awards for his research. He employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and has done extensive field research in Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa.

Registration closed

Contacts :

- Anne-Laure MAHE - (anne-laure.mahe@irsem.fr) 

- Maxime RICARD -  (maxime.ricard@irsem.fr) 

- Dorian LEGER – Communication – (dorian.leger@irsem.fr)