Causes and Consequences of Civilian Victimization

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Domestic and international law attempting to limit violence against civilians during war has long existed. Such legal prohibitions have continued to strengthen over time, especially after the end of the Cold War. International behavior to help reinforce these prohibitions has also increased. For example, states now invoke the Responsibility to Protect when intervening in conflicts to aid vulnerable populations. Similarly, since 1999, the United Nations now centers its peacekeeping efforts around civilian protection. Yet, violence against civilians continues. Despite the mounting costs of such brutality, why do governments continue this violence? When do episodes of abuse end? What effect do the attacks have on society once the victimization ends? This panel brings together a diverse set of scholars in terms of ethnicity, gender, geographic area, rank, and university type. Their work presents a unified effort to answer these related questions through differing empirical and theoretical approaches. Overall, the papers indicate that rather than helping prevent atrocities, international actors often assist murderous governments, fail to end ongoing atrocities, and often promote post-conflict policies that create further divisions within the country. Furthermore, questions remain as to how well the international community is able to identify ongoing abuses against the civilian population.

First, Petra Hendrickson (Assistant Professor, Northern Michigan University) seeks to answer why governments attack civilians. While the international community is often thought of as a bulwark against these atrocities, Hendrickson argues that foreign aid—especially from powerful states—helps protect murderous governments and aids in their use of civilian victimization. She finds that higher levels of U.S. military aid to a country makes the recipient government’s use of mass killing both more likely and more severe. Second, Gary Uzonyi (Associate Professor, University of Tennessee) and Matthew Wells (Assistant Professor, Wabash College) attempt to explain how episodes of mass killing can be ended. Demonstrating that the international community plays little role in ending these atrocities, they argue that divisions in the military help challenge murderous regimes and end their killing sprees. Third, Volha Charnysh (Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Sascha Riaz (Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University) explore how efforts at post-conflict justice following atrocities affect divisions within a country. The international community now commonly promotes post-conflict justice, especially trials, following mass violence against civilian populations. Yet, questions remain as to the long-term effects of these programs. Charnysh and Riaz leverage micro-level data from post-World War II Germany and demonstrate that rather than promote healing, the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial increased the vote share of the far-right NPD in the districts and municipalities where more Jews had lived before the war. Lastly, Sebastian Schutte (Fellow, University of Konstanz) questions how well the international community is able to identify ongoing abuses against the civilian population. He suggests the use of seismo-acoustic technologies in conflict zones to detect areal strikes on civilian targets. Results from Yemen and field experiments near an artillery training site in Norway help support this approach. Jessica Stanton (Associate Professor, Temple University) provides excellent discussion of the scholarship presented on the panel.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• Impact of U.S. Military Aid on Mass Killing Occurrence and Severity - Petra Hendrickson, Northern Michigan University

• Coups and the End of Mass Killing Episodes - Gary Uzonyi, University of Tennessee; Matthew Wells, Wabash College

• Trials and Errors: Transitional Justice in Post-War Germany - Sascha Riaz, Harvard University

• Advances in Remote Detection of Attacks Against Civilians - Sebastian Schutte

Chair

• Gary Uzonyi University of Tennessee

Discussant

• Jessica Stanton Temple University