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ABSTRACT
Ceasefires have long been considered as a means to halt the violence of armed conflict for specific periods of time. This article broadens current understandings of ceasefires by arguing that they not only have the ability to affect violence but can be used as a tool of violent state-building. Through an in-depth examination of two case studies of local ceasefires from the Syrian civil war, Old Homs and Daraya, the paper shows that these types of ceasefires are not only military instruments, but have been used strategically by the Syrian state to violently reassert its authority over property and citizenship rights. Taking this more nuanced view of ceasefires allows us to better understand some of the myriad consequences of how ceasefires play out in practice and can potentially influence the state-building project.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgements
I am forever grateful to Bart Klem and Ghassan Hage for their untiring support of my research. Also, I am indebted to Bernhard Trautner at the German Development Institute for inviting me to present this paper as part of a panel on social contracts at the World Congress for Middle East Studies in Seville in 2018 and to Steven Heydemann for his generous comments on the paper there. Finally, special mention must go to Nora Stel, André Bank and the anonymous reviewers for their engagement and advice on earlier versions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Chounet-Cambas, Ceasefires; Fortna, Peace Time.
2. I put peace in inverted commas here to denote that the nature of peace is a disputed concept in the literature and can have varying meanings in different contexts. Understandings range from Roland Paris’ conception of the ‘liberal peace’ to Johan Galtung’s ‘positive peace’, but see also Bart Klem’s discussion of peace as an unachievable utopian ideal in ‘The Problem of Peace and the Meaning of “Post-War”’.
3. Karakus and Svensson, ‘Between the Bombs’.
4. Milliken and Krause, ‘State Failure, State Collapse, and State Reconstruction’.
5. Hagmann and Péclard, ‘Negotiating Statehood’; Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’.
6. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
7. Kalyvas et al., Order, Conflict, and Violence; Staniland, ‘States, Insurgents, and Wartime Political Orders’.
8. Migdal, State in Society; Wood, ‘The Social Processes of Civil War’.
9. Text of the Homs Hudna Agreement is available here: https://peaceagreements.org/search?SearchForm%5Bregion%5D=&SearchForm%5Bcountry_entity%5D=131&SearchForm%5Bname%5D=&SearchForm%5Bcategory_mode%5D=any&SearchForm%5Bagreement_text%5D=&s=Search+Database# or in Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace: Positives and Pitfalls of Local Truces and Ceasefires in Syria, 48.
10. Mercy Corps Humanitarian Access Team, Local Reconciliations in Syria; Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
11. Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
12. I refer to both local truce and reconciliation agreements generically throughout this article as local ceasefire agreements or just local ceasefires. One difference worth noting between local truce and reconciliation agreements is whether they are considered to be ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ deals. However, this difference appears only to be relevant in the immediate aftermath of the agreement in terms of who is able to stay within the community, and does not necessarily affect medium-longer term or the state-building dynamics of local ceasefires in Syria. For more information on this distinction see Mercy Corps Humanitarian Access Team, Reconciliation and Remobilization.
13. Website of the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria based in Hmeimim airbase in Latakia governorate is available here: http://syria.mil.ru/en/index/syria/reconciliation_bulletin.htm.
14. Text of the reconciliation agreement in Daraya was never published due to a non-disclosure clause stipulated by the regime of Syria. The main points of the agreement were told to me in an author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017.
15. De Waal, ‘Mission without End?’; Stepputat, ‘Pragmatic Peace in Emerging Governscapes’.
16. Raeymaekers et al., ‘State and Non-State Regulation in African Protracted Crises’.
17. Hagmann and Péclard, ‘Negotiating Statehood’.
18. Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’.
19. Meagher, ‘The Strength of Weak States?’.
20. Tilly, ‘War Making and State Making as Organized Crime’.
21. Staniland, ‘States, Insurgents, and Wartime Political Orders’.
22. von Benda-Beckmann and Pirie, ‘Order and Disorder’; Kalyvas et al., Order, Conflict, and Violence.
23. Arjona, ‘Wartime Institutions’; Staniland, ‘States, Insurgents, and Wartime Political Orders’.
24. Walter, ‘The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement’; Zartman, ‘Mediation’.
25. Chounet-Cambas, Ceasefires; Fortna, Peace Time; Clayton Govinda and Valerie Sticher’s research project on ‘Ceasefires and Mediation Processes’, PRIO and ETH Zurich 2017, ongoing.
26. Åkebo, ‘The Politics of Ceasefires’; Joshi and Quinn, ‘Is the Sum Greater than the Parts?’.
27. Kolås, ‘Naga Militancy and Violent Politics’; Sosnowski, ‘Violence and Order’; Woods, ‘Ceasefire Capitalism’.
28. Grotius, On the Rights of War and Peace, 451.
29. Meehan, ‘The Militia Fix’.
30. Baitenmann, ‘Counting on State Subjects’; Das, ‘State, Citizenship, and the Urban Poor’; Lund, ‘Property and Citizenship’.
31. Lund, ‘Property and Citizenship’.
32. Ibid., 41.
33. The most in-depth examinations of how ceasefires affect the micro-dynamics of conflict so far include Mampilly, Rebel Rulers, 81, 223. Most recently Staniland has examined how ceasefires fit into his conceptualisation of ‘armed politics’ in ‘Armed Politics and the Study of Intrastate Conflict’. Both these authors continue to consider ceasefires as a space of relative non-violence where rebel governance can play out.
34. Migdal, State in Society, 52–53.
35. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
36. Baitenmann ‘Counting on State Subjects’; Das and Poole, Anthropology in the Margins of the State; Lund, ‘Rule and Rupture’.
37. Baitenmann ‘Counting on State Subjects’.
38. Arjona et al., Rebel Governance in Civil War.
39. Yassin-Kassab and al-Shami, Burning Country.
40. Van Dam, The Struggle for Power in Syria.
41. UNOCHA, Syria: https://www.unocha.org/syria.
42. An influential report on local truces by Nir Rosen was commissioned by White House NSC Robert Malley in September 2014. The report is available here: https://www.scribd.com/document/385329881/Nir-Rosen-s-influential-2014-paper-on-Syrian-conflict-de-escalation.
43. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
44. Ibid.
45. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
46. Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Greece, 24 January 2018; Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
47. Ibid.
48. Author interview over Skype interview with conflict researcher, Greece, 24 January 2018.
49. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
50. PAX for Peace, ‘Final Report Out of Sight, Out of Mind’.
51. Siege Watch, The Culmination of ‘Surrender or Die’; Author interview via email with conflict researcher, Canberra, Australia, 6 May 2018.
52. Author interview with Negotiation Committee member, Beirut, Lebanon, 23 February 2018.
53. Ibid.
54. Author interview with manager of cross-border organisation, Beirut, Lebanon, 22 February 2018.
55. Full text of Security Council resolution 2393 is available at: http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/2393.
56. Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018.
57. Ibid.
58. Author interview with manager of cross-border organisation, Beirut, Lebanon, 22 February 2018.
59. Todman, Sieges in Syria.
60. Ibid.
61. Lund, Into the Tunnels.
62. The Economist, ‘Dairy Godfathers’.
63. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018; Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
64. Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
65. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018; Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
66. Mercy Corps Humanitarian Access Team, 4.
67. Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018.
68. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
69. Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018.
70. Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Chicago, USA, 8 December 2017; Author interview with manager of cross-border organisation, Beirut, Lebanon, 28 February 2018.
71. Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018.
72. Abouzeid, No Turning Back, 35.
73. Leenders and Giustozzi, ‘Outsourcing State Violence’.
74. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 16–17.
75. Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
76. Ibid.
77. Giovanni, The Morning They Came for Us, 65.
78. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 20.
79. Ibid.
80. Author correspondence via WhatsApp with Negotiation Committee member, 3 February 2017.
81. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 20.
82. Integrity Research and Consulting, Research Summary Report: Local Truces in Syria.
83. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 22.
84. Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
85. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
86. Ibid.
87. Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
88. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, 3 February 2017.
89. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, 3 February 2017; Author interview with Negotiation Committee member, Beirut, Lebanon, 23 February 2018.
90. Author interview with Negotiation Committee member, Beirut, Lebanon, 23 February 2018.
91. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 21.
92. International Humanitarian Law Database, customary law rule 129 relating to forced displacements: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule129.
93. Text of the Homs Hudna Agreement 7 February 2014 is available here: https://www.peaceagreements.org/search?SearchForm%5Bregion%5D=&SearchForm%5Bcountry_entity%5D=131&SearchForm%5Bname%5D=&SearchForm%5Bcategory_mode%5D=any&SearchForm%5Bagreement_text%5D=&s=Search+Database#.
94. Amnesty International, ‘We Leave or We Die’.
95. Turkmani et al., Hungry for Peace, 21.
96. Ibid.
97. PAX for PAX, No Return to Homs.
98. Sosnowski, ‘Reconciliation Agreements as Strangle Contracts’.
99. Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Greece, 24 January 2018; Author interview over Skype with human rights researcher, New York, USA, 27 January 2018.
100. Yassin-Kassab, ‘The Tragedy of Daraya’.
101. Giovanni, The Morning They Came for Us.
102. Friedman, ‘The Arab Spring’s Three Speech Rule’; al-Saqqa was arrested for the third time in July 2011 by the Syrian regime and has not been heard of since. See Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/11/abdul-akram-al-sakka-peaceful-activist.
103. Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017.
104. Glasman, Vie Locale et Concurrence de Projets Politiques.
105. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017.
106. Glasman, Vie Locale et Concurrence de Projets Politiques; Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017.
107. Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017.
108. Ibid.
109. Ibid.
110. Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017.
111. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid.
114. Ibid.
115. Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017.
116. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017.
117. Ibid.
118. The regime did not allow the negotiating committee to make the terms of Daraya’s agreement public but the terms of the ceasefire were told to me in an interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017. They were: (1) All people from the city need to be evacuated either to Idlib or Harjala. There should not be anyone remaining in the city; (2) Those wishing to go to Harjala should resolve their situation within three days; (3) The Syrian regime will release all women and children detained from Daraya; (4) Male prisoners from Daraya will not be released until they resolve their situation; (5) The regime should deal in good faith with the citizens of Daraya [my italics].
119. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017.
120. Ibid.
121. Haid, Where is Home?; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017.
122. Author interview over Skype interview with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 14 December 2017; Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018; Author interview over Skype with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 6 May 2017.
123. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017.
124. Ibid.
125. Haid, ‘The Hard Choices’; Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017.
126. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017.
127. Hinnebusch and Imady, Syria’s Reconciliation Agreements.
128. Author interview with Negotiation Committee member, Beirut, Lebanon, 23 February 2018.
129. Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018; Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
130. Meininghaus, ‘Humanitarianism in Intra-State Conflict’; Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018; Author interview with humanitarian advisor, Beirut, Lebanon, 19 February 2018.
131. Author interview with conflict researcher, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2018.
132. Martínez and Eng, ‘The Unintended Consequences’.
133. Heydemann, Beyond Fragility, 11.
134. Yazigi, Destruct to Reconstruct.
135. PAX for Peace, No Return to Homs; Yazigi, Destruct to Reconstruct.
136. Author interview over Skype with Negotiation Committee member, Idlib, Syria, 22 December 2017; Author interview with local council member, Amman, Jordan, 27 July 2017.
137. PAX for Peace, No Return to Homs.
138. Sosnowski, ‘Reconciliation Agreements as Strangle Contracts’.
139. Black and Shaheen, ‘Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’.
140. Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Syria: Caring for Hundreds of Thousands’.
141. Author interview with Negotiation Committee member, Beirut, Lebanon, 23 February 2018.
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Marika Sosnowski
Marika Sosnowski is an admitted lawyer and researcher at the University of Melbourne. Her primary research interests are in the fields of critical security studies, complex political order, local/rebel governance and legal systems.