After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Idean Salehyan, assistant professor of political science, began researching transnational militant groups. Studying civil wars since 1945, he discovered that a majority of rebel organizations have conducted operations from sanctuaries in neighboring countries.
His new book, Rebels Without Borders: Transnational Insurgencies in World Politics (Cornell University Press), examines civil wars and insurgencies throughout the world. In addition to multi-country analyses, he presents extensive case studies on the Nicaraguan civil war of the 1980s and the Rwandan conflict of the 1990s-2000s and looks at other cross-border insurgents, such as Taliban fighters in Pakistan.
The book sheds light on the difficulties of negotiating peace with transnational rebel organizations and outlines strategies for dealing with the groups.