A New Era of Insurgent Recruitment: Have ‘New’ Civil Wars changed the Dynamic?

ABSTRACTThis article surveys the way in which political scientists and non-traditional scholars have analysed insurgencies and counterinsurgencies. We contend that insurgent recruitment is different in ‘new’ wars due to globalisation. We note continuity in ‘old’ and ‘new’ civil wars, but that collapsed states and the ascent of new types of insurgents with different power bases is markedly different from a pre-globalised era. While there is nothing new about the concept of contemporary insurgent recruiting processes, recruitment efforts have shifted towards a global audience, drastically changing the context and character of these wars and the ways in which they are waged.