Integration or separation? : The stigmatization of ex-combatants after war
Abstract
Ex-combatant reintegration programs are buttressed by a number of problematic assumptions about ex-combatants themselves; namely, that ex-combatants should not receive long-term support because such assistance would amplify the threat they pose to security and exacerbate community resentment towards them. The article uses data collected from Liberia to demonstrate that such thinking stigmatizes ex-combatants and works against the objective of reintegration: it disrupts integration into the everyday social, economic, and political life of the post-conflict state and aims instead to render ex-combatants separate from communities. Integration will remain elusive unless assumptions about ex-combatants as program beneficiaries are challenged.
Citation
McMullin , J R 2013 , ' Integration or separation? The stigmatization of ex-combatants after war ' , Review of International Studies , vol. 39 , no. 2 , pp. 385-414 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210512000228
Publication
Review of International Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0260-2105Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2012. Published by Cambridge University Press, available from http://journals.cambridge.org
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