Organizations as pivotal actors in conflict processes: an introduction

Abstract Organizations are pivotal actors in dissent, coordinating and mobilizing collective action and negotiating with other political actors. This special issue emphasizes the relevance of an organizational perspective in order to gain new insights into conflict processes. The introduction to this special issue develops a broader conception of organizations than is common in the field, encompassing organizations not created primarily for dissent against the state (e.g., trade unions, religious groups, women groups) in addition to rebel organizations that have been the focus of most studies. This wider lens allows us to grasp the diversity of organizational types and strategies that are active across institutional settings, strategies and tactics, and studied across academic fields. From a theoretical perspective, organizations constitute a concrete link between the individual and meso levels and transcend field and disciplinary boundaries thereby opening new paths for cumulative knowledge on the drivers, dynamics, and outcomes of episodes of dissent. Empirically, we highlight challenges in studying organizations in dissent, foremost the reliable identification of organizations. We then preview the contributions to the special issue that employ diverse methodological approaches and theories to analyze organizations in conflict settings. Taken together, the introduction and the special issue demonstrate the importance of focusing on organizations in dissent to obtain a fuller picture of contemporary conflict processes.