Associate professor and International Policy Center director Megan Stewart will be honored with the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) 2021-2022 Conflict Processes Section’s Best Book Award for her book, Governing for Revolution: Social Transformation in Civil War (Cambridge University Press 2021). The Conflict Processes Section’s Best Book Award is awarded every two years for the best book for the study of any and all forms of political conflict both within and between nation-states.
Stewart’s research focuses on the intersection between political violence and the redistribution of power. In Governing for Revolution, Stewart investigates why some rebel groups undertake complex and challenging wartime projects to transform social orders by altering hierarchies of power, while other rebel groups do not.
“I am surprised and honored to receive this award,” said Stewart. “I very much appreciate the work of the award committee in considering my work. I also want to congratulate Monika Nalepa, whose work received an honorable mention.”
In his review, political scientist Douglas Lemke (Pennsylvania State University) called the book “a provocative and original statement about rebel governance … and offers important implications for civil war studies, research on state making and governance and scholarship on the consequences of revolution.”
Political scientist Tanisha Fazal (University of Minnesota), wrote a review stating, “Stewart's thoughtful analysis and careful empirical work shed light on a critical question that has hindered understanding of the dynamics of civil war: why do some rebel groups invest more in governing local populations than others? Her answers link the subjects of rebel governance to the consequences of war. Beautifully written and cogently argued, Governing for Revolution makes a significant contribution to literature on the social dynamics of political violence.”
The book was also a co-recipient of an Honorable Mention for the 2023 Best Book Award committee of the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association.
