Leaders and Civil Conflict

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Over the past decade, there has been a revival of work examining the role of leaders in conflict processes. By bringing leaders back in to political science models, the field has reached several key findings that studies focused on the country, dyad, or organizational level could not produce. Yet, much of this new research on leaders examines international conflict and rather than civil conflict. The papers on this panel help fill this gap in our understanding of how leaders shape conflict processes more generally. The papers approach the study of leaders in two distinct but related ways: some highlight the importance of leader characteristics while others address how the possibility of facing punishment shapes leaders’ strategic decision-making. Taken together, these papers provide new insights into how leaders’ social characteristics and strategic behavior affect civil conflict as well as how conflict influences leaders’ prospects for punishment. Furthermore, several of the papers introduce original data on both state and rebel group leaders that advance the state of the art in this emerging field of study.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• I'll Be Back: Exiled Leaders and Political Instability - Daniel Krcmaric, Northwestern University; Abel Escriba-Folch, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals

• The Exit Dilemma: Providing Golden Parachutes to Embattled Dictators - Andrew Bennett, Georgetown University; Ariya Hagh, Georgetown University; Zacchary Ritter, Gallup

• Revolutionary Cities: Rebel Leaders’ Education, Social Networks, and Rebellion - Reyko Huang, Texas A&M University; Daniel Silverman, Carnegie Mellon University; Benjamin Acosta, Data Half Life

• Leader Punishment in Civil War - Alyssa Prorok

Chair

• Daniel Krcmaric Northwestern University

Discussant

• Jun Koga Sudduth University of Strathclyde