This research project explores how violence directed at the state can ultimately contribute to statebuilding when that violence succeeds. Specifically, it considers how the TPLF/EPRDF insurrection movement in Ethiopia has addressed the challenges of peacebuilding and statebuilding after taking control of the government. In contrast to many other post-conflict African societies, in Ethiopia the former insurrection movement has built a relatively effective developmental regime and has avoided falling into the “conflict trap” often associated with modern “new war” conflicts in the Global South. The central hypothesis of this project is that, rather than just eroding the state, the armed insurrection allowed the TPLF to develop organizational, institutional and symbolic resources that the movement mobilized after taking power.
Findings so far suggest that during war, the erosion of the state and pre-conflict political order can coincide with a process of institutional creativity instigated by the insurrection movements. This project thus builds on the literature critiquing the distinction between 'new' and 'old' wars. By focusing on the transition from insurrection to government, it shows how actors may cross over categories such as state vs non-state. More broadly, these categories themselves may fail to capture important ways in which actors use and regulate violence.
