From Recruitment to Reintegration: Communities and Ex-combatants in Post-Conflict Liberia

TY - JOUR

T1 - From Recruitment to Reintegration: Communities and Ex-combatants in Post-Conflict Liberia

AU - Podder, Sukanya

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - In disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes, return to home communities is a normative given, around which reinsertion and reintegration support is planned. Yet such an approach is oblivious of pre-war social dynamics of rebel recruitment and civilian experiences of rebel abuse and coercion. These manifest as important sources of social tension between communities and combatants in the post-war period and complicate reintegration. This research shows that the ‘recruitment–reintegration’ nexus offers a key variable for explaining tensions between civilian communities and ex-combatants in post-conflict Liberia, and could be leveraged in future efforts to improve DDR programmes.

AB - In disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes, return to home communities is a normative given, around which reinsertion and reintegration support is planned. Yet such an approach is oblivious of pre-war social dynamics of rebel recruitment and civilian experiences of rebel abuse and coercion. These manifest as important sources of social tension between communities and combatants in the post-war period and complicate reintegration. This research shows that the ‘recruitment–reintegration’ nexus offers a key variable for explaining tensions between civilian communities and ex-combatants in post-conflict Liberia, and could be leveraged in future efforts to improve DDR programmes.

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2012.665696

DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2012.665696

M3 - Article

SN - 1353-3312

VL - 19

SP - 186

EP - 202

JO - International Peacekeeping

JF - International Peacekeeping

IS - 2

ER -