The Logic of Change: Pushing the Boundaries of Insurgent Behavior Theory

Claire Metelits discusses how insurgent groups behave when they are forced to compete with other insurgent groups for resources. Claire uses the case studies involving the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Southern Sudan and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Some groups shift from durable, representative entities that provide local civilians with public goods and services in exchange for resources, to coercive groups that extract resources without providing services in return. Coercive behavior is characterized by the extraction of resources without the provision of services or goods in return. Both groups have persisted since the Cold War era, each professing a Marxist ideology at some point. The SPLA used democracy to its advantage, acquiring further aid from western countries and raising awareness of its cause. Unlike the SPLA, the FARC emerged with a contractual, less violent relationship with those it claimed to represent.