Civil war brings substantial transformation to the lives of every individual in a community. In the aftermath of a war, people would naturally desire for a better life or at least seek to secure a living as good as that before the war. This book kicks off with a discussion on the sociopolitical changes for groups and individuals who were deeply involved in the Cambodian civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s, by shedding light on a puzzle: despite the above-mentioned disposition of humans, ‘(w)hile some are impoverished, others make a decent living or even became rich’ (p. x). Although primarily built upon sociological theory, this analysis of habitus groups across former insurgent organisations—the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces (KPNLF), Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendant, Neutre, Pacifique et Coopératif (FUNCINPEC), and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK, Khmer Rouge)—yields valuable interdisciplinary findings on life trajectories, including that wartime networks (re)forms the postconflict power and status of individuals. Daniel Bultmann reveals such a mechanism of sociopolitical transformation by analysing the diversity of types of engagement in the civil war across, within, and beyond these insurgent organisations, with a focus on leaders, mid-ranking officers, rank-and-file combatants, child and female soldiers, and the diaspora. With the recognition that wartime experience and status shape sociopolitical success and failure in postconflict society, the findings require a serious reconsideration of predesigned, one-size-fits-all peacebuilding and postwar development programmes, which have seemingly failed to bring desirable impacts on Cambodian livelihoods.
This book also contributes to the literature on the postconflict transformation of social relationships in war-ridden communities. Empirical studies on civil wars across the world have suggested that wartime violence and mobilisation influence populations by making them adapt to very different environments, in terms of civilian–military, generational, gender and other relationships. Although the scope of this book encompasses these aspects of war-affected people, it highlights the strategies applied by individuals in insurgent organisations to ensure survival and success. The primary and secondary data analysed in the book demonstrate that these groups’ wartime organisational structures and survival strategies had a substantial impact on the subsequent lives of individuals, and is a topic that remains under-examined. A focus on such strategies allows for a realistic evaluation of the gains and losses of former civil war participants.
This inevitably relativises the role of ideology in network-making. In the face of it, the Cambodian civil war was fought over Cold War ideology. Although insurgent organisations enlisted civilians to their ideological causes, many of those enlisted remained indifferent to actual doctrines, as shown in the interviewees’ responses. Survival was contingent not on macro-level ideological cleavages but on micro-level support networks. The finding that ideological positions are fluid in the dynamics of civil war is well supported by this Cambodian case study.
Nevertheless, the fact that several distinct support networks existed across different ranks in these insurgent organisations offers the possibility of an alternative view. Although the book highlights the patterns of individual pathways during the postconflict period by focusing on military rank, networking patterns also impacted the subsequent success/failure of former insurgents. Any theorisation of such network-making patterns beyond the categorisation of habitus groups would be meaningful for students of wartime and postconflict social relationships.
Bultmann's findings are primarily drawn from intensive fieldwork and provide valuable new information on individuals who served in the above-named political organisations in various roles. Alternatively, readers may conjecture the applicability of its findings to other cases of civil war. For instance, although ethnic identity was less of a consideration in the mobilisation of civilians during the Cambodian civil war, it is often a factor in other wars. Given that ethnic identity is possibly less fluid than ideology, the extent to which such support networks, as described in the book, would account for individual strategies for postconflict gains and success in civil wars fought over ethnic cleavages is worth examining. The book primarily seeks to elucidate the sociopolitical transformation of Cambodian insurgent organisations during and after the civil war. Thus, expecting external validity for its findings, which may be extended to other civil wars, may be unfair. Given the significant findings presented in the book, however, other researchers on this topic could usefully pursue its theoretical potential.
The legacies of a civil war are so significant that those who live through one are often unable to readily wean themselves of the wartime social relationships, even decades after it ends. Such relationships are also deeply rooted in local customs and institutions, as this book shows. Thus, omitting them and installing externally-oriented ones in their place may be difficult. Bultmann's analysis of the Cambodian civil war provides a case study to be referenced hereafter, where the sociopolitical success of individuals who were caught in the maelstrom of the civil war is highly determined by their social relationships and networks before, during and after the war.
