Living Politics After War: Ex-Combatants and Veterans Coming Home

Life after war is intrinsically political for former combatants. As wars end, societies and former combatants face a period of transition. Wars politicize combatants, and their relationship with the state, in a number of different ways, either explicitly or inadvertently. This book examines how former combatants come home after war and live politics, capturing the challenges and opportunities for political mobilization among former combatants as they come home from three very different wars.

Using self-constructed life histories, the book draws out the similarities (and dissimilarities) across three different wars and types of former combatants from Colombia (civil war), Namibia (independence war) and the USA (interstate war). Their political life histories after war sheds light on how former combatants’ identities, networks, war experiences and coming home experiences shape their political involvement long after the war has ended. – .