https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010616677713 Security Dialogue 2017, Vol. 48(2) 168–184 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0967010616677713 journals.sagepub.com/home/sdi Exit from war: The transformation of rebels into post-war power elites Stephan Hensell University of Hamburg, Germany Felix Gerdes University of Liberia, Liberia Abstract The reintegration of rebels after war is a key security challenge. This article analyses the post-war transformation of rebels as a process of joining the established political elite. The political careers of former rebels vary. While some rise to senior political positions, others fail to consolidate their power. Taking theoretical notions of Pierre Bourdieu as its point of departure, this article outlines the central role of social capital in the post-war political field, which allows for an analysis and explanation of differences in rebel inclusion and exclusion. The article argues that the political careers of rebels are dependent on the accumulation of vertical and horizontal social capital in elite–mass and intra-elite networks. Case studies of Liberia and Kosovo demonstrate the plausibility of our thesis and the fruitfulness of a Bourdieusian approach in studying the political transformation of armed groups. This article contributes to the debate on the post- war reintegration of rebels as well as to the debate on practice approaches in international relations and security studies. Keywords Elites, Kosovo, Liberia, political sociology, rebels, social capital Introduction The inclusion of former rebels is one of the central challenges after violent conflicts and a key fac- tor defining the success of civil war endings. Armed groups have to be integrated into the political and economic life of the post-war society in order to prevent them from re-engaging in armed conflict. Scholars of peacebuilding and security studies have devoted a great deal of attention to this process. A lot of policy-oriented research has been carried out on disarming and demobilizing former combatants in the context of security sector reform (Muggah, 2009; Dudouet et al., 2012). Another strand of the discussion has focused on the dynamics of transforming armed groups into Corresponding author: Stephan Hensell, University of Hamburg, Allende-Platz 1, Hamburg, 20146, Germany. Email: stephan.hensell@uni-hamburg.de 677713SDI 0 0 10.1177/0967010616677713Security DialogueHensell and Gerdes research-article 2016 Article