Rebel Victory: Transforming Political, Social, and Economic Institutions
Full Day Short Course | Register here
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
OVERVIEW
From China to Cuba to Chad and most recently in Afghanistan and Syria, around one-fourth of post-1945 civil wars have ended in rebel victory, whereby rebels win control of the central state (either militarily or in the first post conflict elections) or successfully secede and control a newly-independent state. Most existing work has found that rebel victors tend to craft the most enduring authoritarian regimes (Meng and Paine 2022), especially revolutionary rebel victors (Lachapelle, Levitsky, Way and Casey 2020). Yet, the consequences of rebel victory extend far beyond the bounds of regime durability to include the nature of domestic political, economic, and social institutions, political violence within and outside a rebel victor’s country, and global institutional and political change.
This invitation-only short course would support engagement and development of an edited volume on the implications of rebel victory. The short course would be designed to provide scholarly exchange and detailed feedback for the contributors of the edited volume. A significant portion of the short course would be dedicated to professional development and networking for junior scholars who, alongside leading senior researchers, are contributors of this volume.
SHORT-COURSE STRUCTURE
The short course will involve read-ahead submissions and will include 4 to 5 panels with 12 to 15 presentations, each approximately 15 minutes long. A discussant will provide feedback on papers before opening them to the floor for in-depth scholarly engagement. The short course will include one module for brainstorming about missing gaps and next steps in the process, and it will include breaks for mentoring, networking, and professional development for junior scholars.
RELEVANT DIVISIONS
Autocracy and Democracy: What is the nature and durability of the regimes rebel victors create? How does rebel victory shape the domestic institutions of other countries?
Conflict Processes: How does rebel victory shape post-conflict reconstruction? How does rebel victory shape political violence within and outside their states?
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1) Scholarly Engagement: we seek to create a vibrant and engaging space for scholars working on rebel victory and its domestic and global consequences
2) Professional Development: with several junior scholars included in the edited volume, we aim to provide professional development opportunities regarding the book publishing and development process, feedback with conceptual development, and new opportunities for guidance in writing
3) Networking: we aim to establish a group of scholars from diverse backgrounds, institutions, and ranks who share an intellectual community and research output.
DELIVERABLE
An edited volume that addresses the following: From the moment they control the state, rebel victors face incentives and challenges that, in most cases, they have never experienced. Unlike incumbent victors, who already controlled the pre-war state, they must attempt to implement their goals with an inherited state apparatus shaped by the defeated government and its predecessors. Rebel victors enjoy greater control over the shape of the postwar state than rebels-turned-parties or coopted warlords in the context of negotiated settlements, but also confront unique challenges. While these victors may have ambitions for great transformation, their hold on power is frequently precarious, and vulnerable to domestic and international threats.
Despite growing attention to post-war political orders and rebel-to-party transitions, civil war scholarship still lacks conceptual, theoretical, and empirical frameworks for understanding and explaining variation in rebel victory and its aftermath. One body of literature on political orders primarily aims to understand post-rebel victory regime consolidation processes of democratization or autocratization. Other work focuses more on security, conflict, and post-war stability, examining either the recurrence of civil war after rebel victory or analyzing factors that may lead from rebel victory to the (in)security of the post-victory regime.
This volume aims to fill this gap by zeroing in on rebel victory as a unique and consequential form of civil war termination, while highlighting variation in post-victory politics around the globe. Rebel victory affects domestic political, economic, security, and social institutions and practices, as well as the durability of these policies. Rebel victory also has implications for the international system, and the international system shapes the nature of rebel victory.
- APSA Annual Meeting Pre-conference Short Courses are half- or full-day events that offer diverse professional development opportunities and allow attendees to connect with scholars from various backgrounds. This year’s pre-conference short courses will be held on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sponsored by APSA Organized Sections, Related Groups, and other affiliated organizations. All short courses require pre-registration to attend.
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