Friend or Foe

"In wars fought across an ethnic divide many combatants use ethnicity as a proxy for political loyalties because it is an easy informational shortcut. What is more difficult - for those armed groups that do not seek ethnic separation as a political goal - is to correctly identify non-coethnics who remain neutral and distinguish this group from those who pose a military threat. How do armed groups gather intelligence in civil wars? Under what conditions will they rely on ethnicity as a heuristic device, and when do they utilize other kinds of intelligence? In this book, Ha gerdal argues that the role of ethnicity can vary even within the same conflict. When other modes of intelligence collection become too resource-demanding many armed groups resort to ethnic cleansing as a last option: information is costly, and ethnicity is a cheap source of an expensive good. Ha gerdal explores the role of ethnicity, violence, and intelligence-gathering through the study of the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990, using a novel nationwide dataset covering over 1,400 villages or neighborhoods and more than 70 interviews conducted in English and Arabic during 16 months of fieldwork. This novel study marks an innovative contribution to the literatures on ethnic cleansing, civil war violence, and the politics of sectarianism in the Arab World"--