New Approaches to Inter-rebel Group Relations

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Inter-rebel relations play a critical role in understanding the onset, duration, and termination of civil conflicts. This panel addresses how rebel groups interact with each other, focusing on conflict and cooperation between militant organizations across the world. The first paper examines why some rebel groups build a united front while others engage in loose alliances. The second paper explores the role of leadership in rebel alliance formation, using cross-national data on the onset of rebel alliances in all multiparty civil wars from 1989 to 2016. The third paper argues what kinds of relationships domestic insurgents and foreign fighters develop. The last article concentrates on the impact of inter-rebel fighting in ethnic group fatal violence.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• Pathways to Cooperation: A Theory of Rebel Group Alliances - Sedef Asli Topal, Ripon College

• Exploring the Role of Leadership in Rebel Alliance Formation during Civil Wars - Rithvik Yarlagadda, University of Maryland, College Park

• Local Insurgent-Foreign Fighter Relations - Tricia Bacon, American University

Chair

• Jacob S. Lewis Washington State University

Discussant

• Ayal Feinberg Gratz College