international relations

Discipline, Dissent and Dispossession

Dr Lara Montesinos Coleman

ISRF EARLY CAREER FELLOW 2014-16

Dominant accounts of resistance to “neoliberal globalization” too often read resistance off theories of global order or presume situated struggles to be manifestations of a global resisting subject. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the variegated texture of dissent, or to how anti-systemic struggles are routinely nullified – drawn into the very processes of order-building they profess to contest – through a nexus of interventions organized around apparently emancipatory values. This project seeks to establish a deeper understanding of what is at stake in the interplay between anti-systemic struggles and the more widely-dispersed modes of political control that may be directed toward and through practices of dissent.

Read More

Political Entrepreneurs and Civil Wars

Professor Andrea Ruggeri

ISRF EARLY CAREER FELLOW 2012-13

Are some rebels more important than others in civil wars? While the existing literature on civil wars has developed theories and provided empirical evidence based either on structural features of society or individual preferences and strategies, we lack a micro-level analysis, where some rebels, namely political entrepreneurs, are distinguished from the “average rebel”. This may be surprising since studies on collective action and common sense tell us tbat not all actors are equal. Some actors and not others are the ones to encourage, organize and lead mobilization. The following research project aims to explore the micro-level of conflict, focusing on the role of political entrepreneurs in civil wars.

Read More