A rebel alliance can be self-explanatory, the purity of rebellion enough to cohere together a popular insurgent front. But, in the messiness of real life, the messiness of rebellion is a hobbling force, with ideological divisions keeping apart factions that should, by all appearances, be natural allies.

In “Same Same but Different? Ideological Differentiation and Intra-jihadist Competition in the Syrian Civil War,” Regine Schwab examines Ahrar al-Sham, one faction in the Syrian war, and what strategies it used to manage alliances among other rebel factions.
While violence is certainly one strategy rebel groups can employ against rival groups, it carries a high cost. For example, ammunition used against another rebel group can't be used to fight the government both groups seek to topple. After all, ammunition is a scarce resource. Moreover, killing fighters of another rebel faction also depletes strength.

“Differentiation also has consequences for other audiences such as local civilians, prospective recruits, and external supporters,” writes Schwab. “Local civilians suffer from rebel infighting as they might get into the crossline or be consciously targeted. Hence, they should prefer nonviolent ways of managing conflict. When groups take a large ideological distance from each other, it is easier for prospective local and foreign recruits to choose their preferred group. While nonstate external sponsors might prefer to support the most radical rebel outlet, state sponsors often choose a more moderate option.”

In Syria, ideological differentiation proved a valuable strategy for Ahrar al-Sham, especially as ISIS occupied a radical extreme of the spectrum. For people looking to combat the Assad government but not driven to the same hardline rules and beliefs as ISIS, Ahrar al-Sham was a path into the fight.

In parsing out how groups occupy ideological space, Schwab sets out two axes: a territorial perspective and a social-political outlook. Territory ranged from national or those seeking to limit the war to smaller geographic confines, and transnational, like ISIS’s vision of Syria and Iraq as both under one rule.

On the pragmatic end of the social scale, Schwab writes, “groups prefer integration with society and see fitna (civil strife) as detrimental to their cause. Hence, they are willing to work with actors that do not share their creed.” This is in contrast to purist groups, which took an expansive definition of “takfir,” or declaring other Muslims infidels.

Ahrar al-Sham was able, especially in 2013-2014, to differentiate itself from ISIS by emphasizing its nationalist credentials and broader ideological umbrella. However, this was not a particularly moderate vision, as al-Sham regularly proclaimed Afghanistan’s Taliban as the model for its desired program. Yet, those same moves left it vulnerable against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which after the fall of ISIS, was able to supplant Ahrar al-Sham as the main rebel force in the country.

“By analyzing the puzzling case of Ahrar al-Sham that emerged both as a winner and a loser of intra-jihadist competition in Syria, the paper finds that ideological differentiation is used when military constraints or ideological similarity preclude the initiation of violence against rivals,” concludes Schwab.

Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman visited programs in Ghana that demystify autism in the country. While Ghana’s government set out a vision of inclusive education in 2016, implementation lags, leaving parents to turn to special needs learning centers that can cost $3,000 annually, though some offer subsidies. “Mary Amoah Kufour, whose 20-year-old daughter has autism, is determined to change the narrative for children with special needs and their caregivers,” wrote Dini-Osman. In 2016, Kufour founded Klicks Africa Foundation, a center for early intervention and support for children under the age of 5 as well as young adults on the autism spectrum. Her work, and others, is making space for autistic children to grow into autistic adults.

Katie Toth thrifted through a pop-up market in a cinema foyer in Prague, where Feminist Anti-War Resistance, a Russian activist group, was raising money for a solidarity kitchen in Ukraine. The work, done beyond the borders of Russia, allows the Russian-speaking community to coordinate efforts and help people stop the war by not participating in it. Market organizer Varvara “feels feminism is the ideal vehicle for discussing how authoritarianism and war are connected; it’s already discussing interconnections between things like race and gender roles.” Siberian communities like Varvara’s see more conscription than Russia’s western cities; that, too, is disproportionate harm from war.

Marco Werman interviewed Fawzia Koofi, a former member of Afghanistan’s pre-Taliban parliament, about the assassination of her colleague, Mursal Nabizada, who, on Jan. 15, 2023, was shot along with her bodyguard in her home in Kabul. Koofi spoke from London, beyond the reach of the violence in the country but hardly unaffected. She explains that every Afghan woman who contacts her feels like they are dying in slow motion. “Because if you live, and you're not recorded as a human being, you're literally dying in slow motion,” Koofi told Werman. For her, the banning of women from universities and working with nongovernmental organizations marked the end of the notion of the “modern Taliban” as distinct from its 2001 predecessor.

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