The Foundations of Rebel Groups and Civilian Victimization in Civil Conflicts

• In Event: Strategies of Legitimization of Violent Non-State Actors

Abstract

The growing literature on civilian victimization during civil conflicts speaks to a number of mechanisms motivating this abuse including relative strength, control over territory as well as hearts and minds, ethnic and religious identities, recruiting behaviors, and providers of rebel resources. However, thus far little attention has been paid to the systematic influence of rebel group foundations on their ability and willingness to abuse civilians, in large part due to the lack of appropriate data on the origins of rebel groups. We expect that groups with broad ties to local communities via social movement organizations and political parties, and especially those groups that result from a merger of multiple organizations representing different elements of society, will be less likely to abuse civilians given the nature of their original support base and pool of recruits. Conversely, rebel groups that emerge from foreign organizations and those that lack a parent organization will have fewer ties to the local populations and thus will be inclined to behave more harshly toward civilians. We test our hypotheses using a new dataset on the foundations of rebel groups operating around the world between 1946 and 2012, and find support for our theoretical expectations.

Authors

• Jessica Maves Braithwaite, University of Arizona

• Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, University of Maryland, College Park

• Peggy McWeeney, University of Maryland, College Park

• Sean Rao, University of Maryland