Description
Scholarship and policy on the political economy of rebel groups usually focuses on their illicit financing by way of extractive economies and criminal business. But the political economy of rebels cannot be reduced to rent-seeking or revenue streams financing their war effort. This article argues that to understand the political economy of rebel movements, we need to take the role of ideology more seriously. To do so the article zooms into Kachin State in Myanmar’s borderlands. The region is home to decades-old ethnonational conflict and rebellion led by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO). Rich in natural resources and located between China and India, Kachin State has also become a focal point of geoeconomic rivalry. This has heightened since the KIO has seized some of the world’s largest rare-earth mines in 2024. By historicising the KIO’s engagement with resource extraction as part of a broader nation-building project, the article demonstrates how the group’s actions are informed by developmentalist ideology rather than mere profiteering or war financing. Reconceptualising war economies through the lens of ideology opens new avenues for scholarly analysis and policy engagement with armed groups and rebel governance.
