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Palgrave Macmillan

Ex-Combatants’ Voices

Transitioning from War to Peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. John D. Brewer

    1. Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

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  2. Azrini Wahidin

    1. Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Capture directly the voices of different kinds of ex-combatant
  • Includes contributions from pioneers in the field as well as from earlier career researchers
  • Highlights the cultural, societal and emotional issues in the transition from war to peace as they affect ex-combatants
  • Explores the various contributions former combatants have made to post-conflict compromise, reconciliation and peacebuilding

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict (PSCAC)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
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  2. Introduction

    • John D. Brewer, Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 1-9

  3. Listening to Ex-combatants’ Voices

    • John D. Brewer
    Pages 11-34

  5. Voices from South Africa

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 149-149
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    2. Contested Voices of Former Combatants in Post-Apartheid South Africa

      • Malose Langa, Godfrey Maringira, Modiefe Merafe
      Pages 151-177

    3. The Lives of Women Ex-combatants in Post-Apartheid South Africa

      • Siphokazi Magadla
      Pages 179-205

    4. ‘Why Did I Die?’: South African Defence Force Conscripts Pre- and Post-1994

      • Wilhelm Verwoerd, Theresa Edlmann
      Pages 207-235

    5. An African Comparison: Girl Soldiers Returning from a Rebel Group in Northern Uganda

      • Allen Kiconco
      Pages 237-262

  6. Voices from Sri Lanka

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 263-263
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    2. Reflections on the Role of Female Cadres in the LTTE

      • Bhavani Fonseka
      Pages 265-286

    3. Media Representations of Women Ex-combatants in Sri Lanka

      • Ashleigh McFeeters
      Pages 287-313

    4. Concluding Reflections

      • Azrini Wahidin
      Pages 315-339

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 341-348
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Keywords

About this book

This book develops the discourse on the experiences of ex-combatants and their transition from war to peace, from the perspective of scholars across disciplines. Ex-combatants are often overlooked and ignored in the post-conflict search for memory and understanding, resulting in their voice being excluded or distorted. This collection seeks to disclose something of the lived experience of ex-combatants who have made the transition from war to peace to help to understand some of the difficulties they have encountered in social and emotional reintegration in the wake of combat. These include: motivations and mobilizations to participation in military struggle; the material difficulties experienced in social reintegration after the war; the emotional legacies of conflict; the discourses they utilize to reconcile their past in a society moving forward from conflict toward peace; and ex-combatants’ subsequent engagement – or not – in peacebuilding. It also examines the contributions that former combatants have made to post-conflict compromise, reconciliation and peacebuilding. It focusses on male non-state actors, women, child soldiers and, unusually, state veterans, and complements previous volumes which captured the voices of victims in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka. This volume speaks to those working in the areas of sociology, criminology, security studies, politics, and international relations, and professionals working in social justice and human rights NGOs.

Reviews

“The book … successfully argues that the deep seated and binary moral judgments about the wrongdoing of ex-combatants not only revictimizes the ex-combatant but can also hold back peace processes. … For academic readers, the book serves as a rich and valuable source of qualitative research, a top text for a university peace programme. Brewer and Wahidin have skilfully crafted the volume to ensure that in each chapter, the reader is grounded in the arguments being made.” (Kisane Prutton, The Peace Psychologist, Vol. 30 (2), 2021)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    John D. Brewer

  • Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Azrini Wahidin

About the editors

John D. Brewer is Professor of Post Conflict Studies sat Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Honorary Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. 
​Azrini Wahidin is Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Co-Director for the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender Studies at Warwick University, UK. 

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