TY - BOOK ID - 71472725 TI - Alliance formation in civil wars PY - 2012 SN - 9781107683488 9781139149426 9781107023024 9781139845038 1139845039 9781139840293 1139840290 1139149423 1283836068 9781283836067 9781139842679 1139842676 1107023025 1107683483 1139854119 1107235960 110725454X 1139841483 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Civil war. KW - Alliances. KW - Civil war KW - Alliances KW - Treaties of alliance KW - International relations KW - Treaties KW - Civil wars KW - Intra-state war KW - Rebellions KW - Government, Resistance to KW - International law KW - Revolutions KW - War KW - Law and legislation KW - Social Sciences KW - Political Science UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:71472725 AB - Some of the most brutal and long-lasting civil wars of our time involve the rapid formation and disintegration of alliances among warring groups, as well as fractionalization within them. It would be natural to suppose that warring groups form alliances based on shared identity considerations - such as Christian groups allying with Christian groups - but this is not what we see. Two groups that identify themselves as bitter foes one day, on the basis of some identity narrative, might be allies the next day and vice versa. Nor is any group, however homogeneous, safe from internal fractionalization. Rather, looking closely at the civil wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia and testing against the broader universe of fifty-three cases of multiparty civil wars, Fotini Christia finds that the relative power distribution between and within various warring groups is the primary driving force behind alliance formation, alliance changes, group splits and internal group takeovers. ER -