This book seeks to understand why some armed groups are better equipped to take up tasks of rebellion and why others falter and collapse in the heat of conflict. States, insurgents, and the civilians caught in their paths constantly grapple with questions of organization and control. We can best explain the patterns that emerge during these rebellions by analyzing the social terrain of politics and identifying how armed groups reach into the past and try to reshape the present to create organizations able to handle the extraordinary pressures of war. -- From the author.

Organizing insurgency -- Insurgent origins -- Insurgent change -- Azad and jihad : trajectories of insurgency in Kashmir -- Organizing rebellion in Afghanistan -- Explaining Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka -- Peasants and commissars : communist tides in Southeast Asia -- Insurgency, war, and politics.