Paper short abstract:

In this article, I argue that post-war recovery is more likely to succeed if it factors in multiple layers of authority ‘below’ and ‘outside’ the state, using the Ebola outbreak of 2014/2015 in Liberia as a case study.

Paper long abstract:

In this article, I argue that post-war recovery is more likely to succeed if it factors in multiple layers of authority 'below' and 'outside' the state, using the Ebola outbreak of 2014/2015 in Liberia as a case study. Moving beyond the structural violence framework, I demonstrate that while Liberia's pursuit of a vertical state-building agenda at the behest of international donors unraveled during Ebola, the tactics employed by non-state Liberian domestic and transnational actors were constituted by horizontal nation-building objectives and therefore appeared more legitimate. My major contribution is the beginnings of a systematic documentation of how Liberians 'below' and 'outside' the state used their individual and collective agency to eradicate Ebola thereby becoming the legitimate nodes of authority during the outbreak, and why their interventions are important for a larger discussion about the trajectory of post-Ebola recovery. While it is difficult to prove a causal relationship between the interventions of non-state Liberian actors and the gradual decline in Ebola incidence rates, I underscore important correlations between their public health measures and Ebola eradication. This article provides a firm foundation for deeper analysis about the scope and magnitude of Liberian-led efforts during Ebola, thereby showcasing the need to document these initiatives further.