Book Presentation: Beyond the Lines by Sarah Parkinson

• Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences

How do rebel groups cope with crises such as repression, displacement, and fragmentation? What explains changes in militant organisations' structures and behaviours over time? In this event, Sarah E. Parkinson presents her book "Beyond the Lines", exploring the social underpinnings of rebel adaptation and resilience.

Drawing on nearly two years of ethnographic research, Sarah E. Parkinson traces shifts in Palestinian militant groups' internal structures and practices during the civil war of 1975 to 1990 and foreign occupations of Lebanon. She shows that most militants approach asymmetrical warfare as a series of challenges centered around information and logistics, characterized by problems such as supplying constantly mobile forces, identifying collaborators, disrupting rival belligerents' operations, and providing essential services like healthcare. Effective negotiation of these challenges contributes to militant organisations' resilience and survival. In this context, the foundation of rebel resilience lies with militants' ability to repurpose their everyday social networks to organisational ends.

In the Lebanese setting, Beyond the Lines demonstrates how regionalised differences in Israeli, Syrian, and Lebanese deployment of violence triggered distinct social network responses that led to divergent organisational outcomes for Palestinian militants.