Andor and the Politics of an Incipient Insurgency

Visitor put up by Daniel Silverman

Warning: this text accommodates spoilers concerning the Disney Plus sequence Andor. Learn on with care.

As many critics have noted, Disney’s new present Andor is solely unbelievable. With a gritty realism that has typically been lacking within the Star Wars universe, and a few crisp writing, stellar performing, and tense motion all through the sequence, it’s already being mentioned as one of many strongest entries within the franchise’s storied historical past.

However one a part of its attraction that critics and followers could not totally respect is how realistically grounded the present is in its politics. The present portrays an incipient insurgency in opposition to a strong tyrannical state—the Empire—and the alternatives and challenges that these on either side of the battle face. Listed here are some key methods it faucets into what we find out about how insurgencies unfold:

1) The fallacy of over-repression

One key function of (counter)rebel campaigns, which the present captures properly, is how indiscriminate repression by the state can really incentivize individuals to insurgent. Analysis shows that when governments use indiscriminate violence to crush an insurgency—harming individuals no matter whether or not they’re engaged in resistance or not—it typically has the alternative of the meant impact. As a substitute of squashing riot, indiscriminate violence could make residing in a civilian neighborhood extra harmful than residing in a insurgent hideout and thus encourage extra resistance. Whereas individuals typically desire to try and get on with their lives as finest they’ll within the face of autocratic rule, really indiscriminate violence could make it “rational” from even a slender survival viewpoint to affix up with the rebels, since then you could a minimum of take pleasure in some insurgent safety.

That is clearly on show for Cassian Andor, the protagonist of the sequence. Cassian is a reluctant participant within the insurgency’s first main assault, a daring shock raid on the imperial base of Aldhani. This assault shakes the Empire to its core, planting the concept that there could also be a critical riot in opposition to imperial rule on its radar. Having participated within the raid by way of no grand plan of his personal, Cassian tries to dwell a traditional life afterwards by fleeing to a seaside planet known as Niamos underneath a false title. However the Aldhani raid leads the Empire to move a bunch of latest safety measures that enormously heighten its repression, to the purpose of now not being cautious about who its brokers are focusing on. Cassian is quickly arrested for strolling by a scuffle with imperial brokers and showing suspicious, whereas doing nothing incorrect himself. He’s sentenced to 6 years of exhausting labor in an imperial jail by a kangaroo court docket choose, and we see it beginning to daybreak on him that residing peacefully shouldn’t be an choice within the face of imperial insurance policies. The sequence thus reveals how indiscriminate violence can nudge individuals towards riot even for the sake of their very own safety.

2) The politics of provocation

The sequence additionally reveals how some rebels attempt to exploit this fallacy. Students have lengthy written about how one of many methods employed by insurgents and terrorists is “provocation,” or making an attempt to push the state into participating in overaggressive and counterproductive insurance policies that provoke resistance. Luthen, chief of the rising insurgent community in Andor, is a transparent proponent of this technique. He states late within the sequence: “No matter our remaining model of success seems like, there’s no likelihood any of us could make it actual on our personal. We’d like the Empire to assist. We’d like them offended. We’d like them coming down exhausting. Oppression breeds riot.” Whereas provocation is only one of a menu of various methods insurgencies can pursue, and students debate its relative significance specifically instances, Andor’s depiction of a provocation-minded insurgent chief places it properly throughout the bounds of the literature on political violence. And the sequence illuminates how provocation can unfold on the bottom successfully.

3) The explanations individuals take part in riot

As well as, the present offers a pleasant lens into the explanations individuals turn into rebels. Certainly, research on the politics of riot reveals that resource-poor organizations—these during which fighters dwell exhausting lives and obtain little in the way in which of fast materials rewards—have a tendency to draw hardcore devoted followers versus opportunistic and materialistic recruits. The small insurgent band Cassian joins is simply such a corporation, residing meagerly within the mountains whereas coaching for its first assault. And fittingly, whereas Cassian himself is initially a mercenary, the insurgent group is filled with ideologically devoted cadres with figures like Vel, Cinta, and the idealistic younger Nemik at its core. Cassian himself additionally displays what we find out about why individuals insurgent, as his radicalization course of is a protracted journey that unfolds over time, mixes materialist incentives with emotional drivers (just like the pleasure of agency and trauma from previous state repression), and makes use of a beloved family member (his mom Maarva) as the final word recruiter and push for him to affix.

Andor contains many different themes which might be well-grounded in analysis on insurgency and riot. Amongst these are the significance of controlling the spread of rumors about riot, the methods during which geography (rural and concrete) can foster insurgencies, the perils of rebel fragmentation, and the challenges of terrorist financing.

In the end, after all, the present isn’t totally life like. Like different movies about violence—Monos, for instance, which was splendidly reviewed on this web site by Juan Tellez—it’s a extremely stylized and romantic telling of battle. However a part of its energy comes from the way in which it presents a window into a number of the key dynamics of insurgencies—and the tough selections and dilemmas they current—in the true world.

Daniel Silverman is an assistant professor of political science at Carnegie Mellon College.