Rebel Iron Fist

Conventional and tired characterizations of civil wars invoke images endless chaos relentless violence perpetuated by armed groups. In reality, are defned unique forms wartime social political order, anything but chaotic.1 This study focuses on ‘rebel governance’ as a specifc rebel-civilian sociopolitical relationship in which rebel groups participate the administration civilian afairs. Using disaggregated data governance 122 wars, I examine between character used use against civilians. Contrary to existing governance, results large-N analysis show particularly provision services, be positively related confict violence. Through further qualitative case Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE), point necessary role group capacity two preliminary explanations for observed relationship.