Lindsay Scorgie’s Conflict at the Edge of the African State: The ADF Rebel Group in the Congo–Uganda Borderland offers a historically grounded analysis of the resilience of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the Rwenzori borderland of western Uganda and eastern Congo. Rejecting state‑centric interpretations, Scorgie centers borderland dynamics to argue that the region’s anti‑state, liminal character shaped both the ADF’s emergence and its longevity. By tracing recruitment practices, support networks, and strategic uses of violence, she demonstrates how ADF operations were embedded in local social, political, and economic structures.

Chapter One introduces the borderland framework and the Rwenzori region’s geopolitical composition. Drawing on 125 semistructured interviews conducted across Kampala, western Uganda, and eastern Congo, Scorgie challenges media portrayals that reduce the ADF to an ISIS‑affiliated Islamist movement. Her culturally grounded methodology underscores the value of interdisciplinary approaches to African border conflicts. Though this study is situated in the political science subfield of conflict studies, Scorgie’s interdisciplinary examination of the ADF and borderland conflicts exemplifies the benefits of consulting multiple interpretations to develop an in-depth understanding of the anti-state and liminal character of the Rwenzori borderland society.

Chapter Two elaborates the book’s concept of “borderland,” framing it as a fluid space that is constantly renegotiated, particularly during periods of conflict, and constantly changes geographically on both sides of the border. Scorgie disputes depictions of border zones as marginal “no man’s lands,” instead presenting borderlanders as strategic actors who sustain robust political and economic networks—often in the absence of state institutions. Chapter Three traces how the Nande of eastern Congo and the Konjo of western Uganda forged a shared borderland identity through long‑standing grievances against both states. Their marginalization facilitated the rise of the Rwenzururu Freedom Movement and later insurgencies, including NALU, whose cross‑border networks laid the groundwork for the ADF’s emergence. While the ADF is not a direct offshoot of the RFM or NALU, the movement was made possible by the shared identity rooted in struggle that influenced the ADF’s predecessors.

Chapters Four and Five assess how the ADF leveraged Rwenzori borderland’s features in 1996–2013. Scorgie references newspapers and Ugandan officials to illustrate how the ADF became associated with Islamic extremism and challenges that narrative by showing how conflict in the Rwenzori borderland should not be explained as Islamic terrorism or as a proxy war. Though it is true that many ADF rebels are Muslims, their goals were not defined by an ideology. However, as both chapters demonstrate, state actors linked the ADF to global terrorist networks to align themselves with the West to secure resources and justify their failure to substantively address violence in the borderland. Yet, it is important to understand the benefits of the ADF’s association with Muslim networks for the state, the rebel group, and borderlanders, as their Islamic networks provided the material support both militaristically and economically.

Chapter Six interrogates the ADF’s resilience as they faced significant challenges on both sides of the border to their regional power from the Uganda People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) and the Mission de l’Organization des Nations Unies en Republique Democratique du Congo (MONUSCO) from 2014 to 2021. Scorgie analyzes changes to the conflict landscape in eastern Congo, the UPDF’s and MONUSCO’s increased aggression towards rebels, and the differences in assessments of the ADF on the ground versus the media. The ADF were increasingly linked to ISIS by state actors, foreign organizations, and the media, and they capitalized on global Islamophobia to strengthen their transborder networks, making the Rwenzori economy the strongest in the region despite their setbacks. Chapter Seven problematizes political scientists’ preoccupation with edge effects as an explanation for borderland conflicts, which locks conflicts into state borders and ignores transborder dynamics. Scorgie argues that international conflict management efforts in borderlands are not as attentive to micro-political factors and applies a broad definition of “transnationalism” to conflict studies without consideration for how different factors impact different situations. The book concludes by showing how the borderland analytical framework is useful for borderland conflicts outside of Africa.

Scorgie’s study makes a compelling case for rethinking borderland insurgencies through micro‑level, historically informed lenses. It offers an effective methodological model and enriches scholarship on African conflicts by foregrounding the agency of borderland communities.