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Type of Resource (primo): dissertations
Name: Personal
Name: Personal
Name: Personal
Name: Personal
Name: Corporate
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Note: thesis: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2025
Genre (aat): theses
Abstract: This dissertation develops novel theoretical frameworks to trace the entire lifecycle of militias, from their formation during civil wars to their diverse post-conflict trajectories and effects on governance. By linking wartime territorial control to militia formation processes, I find that distinct types of militias emerge in different conflict zones. Grassroots militias tend to form “from below” in disputed territories, where communities organize to defend themselves from both insurgent and state violence. In contrast, state-orchestrated militias are created “from above” by the Armed Forces in former insurgent strongholds, where the state seeks to consolidate territorial control through top-down counterinsurgency strategies. I then examine how militias’ wartime relationships with the military and local communities shape their post-conflict paths. I identify three main trajectories: some militias disband, others persist and weaken rural governance, while others survive and strengthen it. The most intriguing trajectory, militias’ adoption of governance-enhancing roles post-conflict, is more likely to occur when these organizations maintain autonomy from the military and deep community ties during wartime. By protecting communities from civil war violence, militias earn social legitimacy and institutionalize, prompting their members and local villagers to repurpose them for post-conflict governance roles. Empirically, the dissertation draws on nine months of immersive fieldwork in rural Peru—including over 90 interviews, more than 3,000 formal and informal archival documents, and sustained participant observation. These site-intensive methods underpin a comparative historical analysis via process tracing of three subnational cases: the districts of Los Morochucos, Llochegua, and Luricocha—all located in Ayacucho, the epicenter of Peru’s internal armed conflict (1980-2000). My research contributes to debates on the inner workings of civil war and its historical legacies, particularly in relation to post-conflict governance. It highlights how wartime organizations can evolve into agents of stability in areas where the state remains weak, helping deliver public goods and services and thus improving the lives of historically marginalized populations.
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01205190")
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