Rebels Without a Cause? Transnational Diffusion and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), 1986-2011

Abstract

This essay explores the transnational mechanisms affecting the violent struggle of the Lord's Resistance Army. In order to understand better new forms of post-Cold War violent conflict, a growing body of research focuses on the transnational dimensions of these struggles. Many of the recent quantitative studies addressing such questions have highlighted the role of diaspora support or the ability of rebel groups to retreat across state borders. But most of these studies are content with claims that such factors matter for outbreak and perpetuation of violence without showing how they specifically play into the mobilization of resources, changes in framing the violence, and choices of targets and strategies. Such analyses also largely fail to look at the interactions between transnational mechanisms and other, more locally driven factors that may mediate or even render external influences ineffective. Finally, rarely do studies explore the interaction between transnational mechanisms sustaining the violence and countervailing transnational efforts designed to end it.

While greater attention to local grievances debunks persistent myths framing LRA violence as 'irrational,' a focus on transnational mechanisms sheds light on shifts in a rebel movement’s environment that are equally relevant to developing more effective interventions. The continued international preference for a military response reflects a limited grasp of both the local and the transnational dimensions of this conflict. As a result, the international community time and again fails to develop effective strategies to protect civilians. President Obama’s October 2011 decision to deploy an additional 100 U.S. forces to eliminate the LRA represents a continuation of such failed external efforts.

Keywords: transnationalism, rebel movements, human rights, Lord's Resistance Army, resource conflicts