Rebel Governance in the Middle East: The role of kinship groups in the sociopolitical organization of insurgent proto-states.

This project has aimed to investigate socio-political organization in rebel-controlled areas in the Middle East. The main questions in the project have been: How do rebel groups and kinship groups influence each other in the governing of areas that rebel groups take control of? What affects the relationship and the power relationship and how are civilians in rebel-controlled areas affected by compromises, confrontation and negotiation between incoming rebel groups and existing local (kinship) groups? The following cases have been investigated: the Kurdish government in Rojava, Syria, IS in Iraq, the PLO in camps in the West Bank and Lebanon, and the Hamas government in Gaza. The project has found that the state-tribe relationship is dynamic: When states are weak or collapse, large sections of the population in the Middle East seek security in their kinship groups. Tribalism (strong kinship ties and ideology) is thus a modern phenomenon that emerges as a result of political conflict, rather than that states collapse as a result of tribalism. The project has found that the strengthening of local clan and tribal groups can both generate increased local conflict as a result of internal conflicts between clans or tribal groups, but also local peace and order through the consolidation of tribal law. The project has found that the relationship with the local tribal groups is important for the success of rebel rulers. Rebel rulers that have a pragmatic attitude and have adapted to local morals and cultural conditions avoid internal unrest and kinship groups that ally with external actors against the rulers. Rebel rulers such as IS (Iraq), that seeks international recruitment through ideologically based governments, regardless of brutality against local people, undermine trust and legitimacy among the governed civilian population. Local conflict with kinship groups undermined IS over time, unlike the governments in Gaza and Rojava (Syria) with a more pragmatic local approach. A common feature of various rebel governments is that the role of women is important as a symbol, but in different ways. Both for the secular (Kurds), with equality, for the Islamists (Hamas) with attempts to create a new Islamic female model, and the jihadists (IS) with strict gender segregation, the role of women defined the rebel regime's ideological project. In all cases, women became trophies for the various ideological projects. The project has found by traditional law, tribal law, is of great importance in the areas of weakened state power, as a parallel system of law and justice and conflict resolution even after the rebel group has taken power. Although the principle of collective responsibility breaks with modern legal principles, the system has great confidence in conflict areas.

Prosjektet har oppnådd sin primære målsetting. Undersøkelser har blitt utført for hver av casene skissert i prosjektbeskrivelsen med unntak av Waziristan/Taliban i Qandahar. Resultater har blitt formidlet på konferanser, gjennom mediaoppslag og en omfattende vitenskapelig produksjon. Sekundære målsettinger. Prosjektet har bidratt til å etablere et nytt studiefelt gjennom konferansepresentasjoner, vitenskapelig produksjon. En indikasjon er tilbakemeldinger fra enkelte fagfeller som ønsker at artikler skal forankres i litteratur om opprørsstyrer fordi, angivelig, fagfeltet som sådan ikke eksisterer. Prosjektet har bidratt til å etablere IKOS som et verdensledende fagmiljø på temaet. Ambisjonen om en klar tverrfaglig profil har blitt gjennomført. Om internasjonalt samarbeid har et gjesteopphold ved Det amerikanske universitetet i Beirut blitt gjennomført, samt at et langvarig samarbeid om gjennomføring av survey i Gaza har blitt gjennomført.

This project combines anthropological (kinship) and social science (conflict studies) perspectives in the study of rebel governance and its sociopolitical organization. Its point of departure is the observation that in rebel-held areas with a civilian population , kinship groups will probably be among the most important societal forces. Hence, the rebel proto-state will be shaped by processes of negotiation between kinship groups and the insurgents. The overall research question in this project is: How do rebel governments and kinship groups shape and influences one another? Drawing upon a comparative qualitative case study approach, the project explores patterns of rebel-kinship group interaction in Rojava, Gaza, ISIS in Raqqa and Mosul, Taliban in Qandahar, and a fifth case to be determined (a post-doctoral position). The RebelGov-project focuses on governance issues in which rebel and kinship group practices overlap, and especially where and when the new rebel authority encroaches upon the traditional authority spheres of kinship groups. Three specific empirical areas will be explored: The administration of justice, including courts, police and dispute adjudication; taxation and access to, and financing of, public service provision; and family autonomy and gender policies, including marriage practices. The project has developed tentative hypotheses about variation of kinship group adaptation to rebel rule, the impact of competition over sources of revenues, rebel recruitment as a factor in intra-kinship group conflicts and gender issues and finally, the impact of variation in transnational resource mobilization on rebel rule.