Civilian Strategy in Civil War

Transcription

1 Civilian Strategy in Civil War

2 Politics, Economics, and Inclusive Development Prepared under the auspices of the Pacific Basin Research Center, Soka University of America Series Editors William Ascher, Claremont McKenna College John M. Heffron, Soka University of America Natalia Mirovitskaya, Duke University The Politics, Economics, and Inclusive Development series examines the challenges and progress in promoting humanistic development. The complex tasks of simultaneously pursuing economic growth, broad participation and equity, democratic peace, and sustainability require scholarship that merges in-depth analysis of the many factors that influence development outcomes with contextually rich experiences. The single- or multiauthored books use an interdisciplinary methodology to explore diverse experiences of individual nations, world regions, or the entire global system in their quest for more democratic, technically sound, and sustainable development. The publications from the Politics, Economics, and Inclusive Development series will be valuable to students, scholars, policy makers, and international development practitioners. Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America Edited by William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia Edited by William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya The Economic Roots of Conflict and Cooperation in Africa Edited by William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya Civilian Strategy in Civil War: Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines Shane Joshua Barter

3 Civilian Strategy in Civil War Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines Shane Joshua Barter

4 civilian strategy in civil war Copyright Shane Joshua Barter, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. Figures 3.1, 6.1 and 7.1 Copyright (c) Shane Joshua Barter. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify these documents under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at: First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barter, Shane Joshua. Civilian strategy in civil war : insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines / by Shane Joshua Barter. pages cm. (Politics, economics, and inclusive development) 1. Civilians in war Indonesia History. 2. Civilians in war Thailand History. 3. Civilians in war Philippines History. 4. Civil war Indonesia History. 5. Civil war Thailand History. 6. Civil war Philippines History. I. Title. U21.2.B dc A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: May

5 Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments vii ix xi Chapter 1 Introduction: Civilian Strategy in Civil War 1 Chapter 2 Toward a Theory of Civilian Strategy 9 Chapter 3 Empirical Foundations, Aceh 33 Chapter 4 Aceh s Civilians in War 59 Chapter 5 Explaining Civilian Strategies in Aceh 93 Chapter 6 Comparisons, Patani 127 Chapter 7 Comparisons, Mindanao 159 Chapter 8 Civilian Strategy: Theory and Practice 191 Notes 207 Bibliography 223 Index 239

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7 Illustrations Figures 3.1 Map of Aceh Map of Patani Map of Muslim Mindanao and Sulu 160 Tables 2.1 Potential forms of civilian support for armed groups Explanations for civilian strategies Population of Aceh by ethnic group Social groups and leaders in Aceh 52

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9 Preface Civilians are typically characterized as the victims of war. While they are indeed victims, focusing solely on their victimization obscures the ways that civilians navigate bloody conflicts. What options are available to civilians in times of war? I propose that civilians possess three broad options: flight, support, and voice. This schema provides a memorable, useful approach to understanding how civilians respond to war. They may flee from violence for various lengths of time or distance; they may support one or another armed group by providing supplies, labor, or information; or they may protest, criticizing armed groups in an effort to shape their behavior. While each of these phenomena has been studied extensively, they are not always approached as choices and have yet to be seen as parts of a broad menu of civilian strategy. Additionally, civilians may combine the three options, for instance, mixing the support and voice strategies to transform armed groups from within. These strategies not only help civilians survive, they can even influence the course of a given conflict. This book is based on multisite ethnographic research in three Southeast Asian conflicts: Aceh, Indonesia; Patani, Thailand; and Mindanao, Philippines. I conducted open-ended rural interviews with over three hundred persons, mostly village chiefs and religious leaders. Following Kalyvas (2006), I selected sites within each case according to zones of combatant control. I also disaggregated the broad category of civilians into different social groups: farmers, village chiefs, religious leaders, women, and new notables. The civilian perspective sheds new light on cases that have previously been understood in terms of states, rebel movements, and civil society. The flight, support, and voice schema allows for new insights into the decisions made by those who choose not to fight. While by no means disregarding security considerations in driving behavior, sociocultural factors play surprisingly important roles in shaping civilian strategies. The dominant approach to understanding civilians relates to zones of combatant

10 x l Preface control (Kalyvas 2006), suggesting security-driven responses to war. I note the ethnic foundations of these zones, suggesting that civilian decisions may be a cause of the zones that are said to determine their behavior. More importantly, I disaggregate the unwieldy category of civilians into sociological categories and find that, facing the same conflict in the same places, different types of civilians utilized very different strategies. While young men and ethnic minorities tend to flee, village chiefs and Islamic leaders are less likely to do so, although this varies by conflict. The support strategy was most evident among women and Islamic leaders, those not expected to take up arms. Distinct forms of voice were taken up by women, activists, farmers, and village chiefs, motivated in large part by conviction against armed conflict. This microlevel variation suggests that civilian strategies are shaped by societal norms.

11 Acknowledgments This book owes a deep debt to a wide range of friends and colleagues. First and foremost, I must acknowledge the friendship and hard work of my mentor, Diane Mauzy. Brian Job and Peter Dauvergne provided great patience and support, as did Nathan Allen, who provided criticism in evening study sessions. The Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) provided a wonderful environment with supportive colleagues and professors, including Adam Bower, Nicolas Dragojlovic, Daniel Drugge, Jan Luedert, Richard Price, Aim Sinpeng, and Lisa Sundstrom. Outside of UBC, pieces of this project have been commented on by Amitav Acharya, Ariel Ahram, Marc Askew, Jacques Bertrand, Francis Bradley, Don Emmerson, Stathis Kalyvas, Joseph Liow, Oona Parades, Anthony Reid, Paul Staniland, and others. I need to single out Ed Aspinall for his exceptional support and feedback, both on an earlier version of the manuscript as well as on later versions. I know of nobody so knowledgeable about Indonesian politics than him. Further afield, I must first thank my good friend Juanda Djamal and everyone at Saree School, as well as Arief Rusli, to whom the school is dedicated. Others in and around Aceh include Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, Syamsul Bahri, Raja Bantah, Budi Arianto, Nurdin Rahman, Mahdi, Hamdani Hamid, Pak Bahagia, Ines, Risna, Siswanto, Muslim Jaram, Sarbunis, and Agus. In Thailand, Chalida Tajoernsuk and Kamol Kamoltrakul helped make some difficult fieldwork possible. In Patani, Chidchanok Rahimmula, Srisompob Jitpiromsri, Ekharim, Johan and Wahida, Francis Bradley, Nelson Rand, and some activists who wish to remain anonymous contributed a great deal to my understanding of a complex conflict. In Mindanao, I was guided by Lela Garner Noble, Thomas McKenna, and especially Mike Abdullah. I would also like to thank Steven Rood, Willy Torres, Guiamel Alim, and the wonderful Patricio Abinales, who volunteered to share his extensive newspaper archives.

12 xii l Acknowledgments At Soka University of America, Ian Read, Michael Weiner, Lisa MacLeod, Ted Lowe, and Gilles Glacet have helped me move toward publication. Students from my seminar on Armed Conflict in Southeast Asia, as well as research assistants Ian Zatkin-Osburn, Akira Takahata, Mitch Hirai, and Danny Smyth provided useful suggestions. Bill Ascher at the Pacific Basin Research Center and Farideh at Palgrave MacMillan were instrumental in giving this book an additional push. I apologize to those whom I have failed to mention. I cannot, however, fail to thank my wife and best friend, Melissa Duong, as well as Sidney Glen Barter, whom I will take to Southeast Asia soon.