Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars

The Global Cable

With Labor Day behind us and the weather cooling down, summer is very nearly over - but there's still time for one more episode of our special Summer Reading List podcast series. Our last episode features Barbara Elias, an Assistant Professor of Government at Bowdoin College specializing in international relations, insurgency warfare, U.S. foreign policy, and the relationship between Islam and politics. Her new book, Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars, was released by Cambridge University Press in June. In our conversation, Professor Elias explains why local forces in war-torn countries may choose to cooperate with - or defy - a foreign intervening power; what the stories she tells in her book, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, mean for the future of U.S. foreign policy; and how to approach research in archives.

Music & Produced by Tre Hester.