Bruce Russett Award for Article of the Year in JCR for 2021
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00220027221136919 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Bruce Russett Award |
Bruce Russett Award
Journal of Conflict Resolution
2022, Vol. 66(10) 1735–1736
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00220027221136919
journals.sagepub.com/home/jcr
Bruce Russett Award for
Article of the Year in JCR for
2021
Mara Redlich Revkin has been awarded the annual Bruce Russett Award for the Article
of the Year published in Journal of Conflict Resolution during 2021. The winning
article, “Competitive Governance and Displacement Decisions Under Rebel Rule:
Evidence from the Islamic State in Iraq”was published in the January-February
2021 issue (JCR 65:1).
Members of the editorial board of JCR participated in a two-stage process in order to
determine the winner of the award. The first step was for a nominating committee to
recommend their top four articles for consideration. In the second step the four articles
that received the most nominations were given to a voting committee who were asked
to rank-order each of the articles. The winner received the highest overall rankings
among all the votes cast. In casting their votes for the article of the year, the committee
was asked to judge the strength of each article in terms of new and important con-
tributions to basic research based on considerations of theoretical quality, methodo-
logical rigor, and substantive relevance to the field of conflict studies.
In the award-winning article, Revkin examines the question of which Iraqi civilians
residing in Mosul, Iraq decided to stay or leave during the period of Islamic State rule
from 2014–2017. Based on an original door-to-door household survey and semi-
structured interviews of Mosul residents in 2017–2018 after the defeat of the Islamic
State, Revkin finds supporting evidence for the theory of competitive governance.
Despite the violence and harsh rule imposed by the Islamic State, residents who
perceived improvements in the quality of governance under Islamic State rule com-
pared to the Iraqi state, were systematically more likely to remain in Mosul under
Islamic State rule. This central finding suggests that the historical experience of ci-
vilians living under weak rule of law and bad governance by previous state authorities
significantly affects the attitude and actions of civilians toward rebel governance. This
legacy of bad governance provides rebels with the strategic opening to build tacit
acceptance, if not support among civilians, when they are able to improve upon the
delivery of basic social services, reduce corruption, and strengthen the rule of law.
These findings contribute significantly to several literatures on civil wars, including the
dynamics of rebel governance, civilian agency in collaboration and resistance against
rebel groups, and the drivers of civilian migration and displacement. This innovative
article combines original survey and interview data based on fieldwork in challenging
To continue reading
Request your trial