Continuation of Politics by Two Means: Direct and Indirect Violence in Civil War

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Balcells
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spatial Variation ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Direct Violence

This article distinguishes between ‘‘direct’’ and ‘‘indirect’’ violence during civil wars. These two types differ in their forms of production: while indirect violence is unilaterally perpetrated by an armed group, direct violence is jointly produced by an armed group and civilians, and it hinges on local collaboration. These differences have consequences for the spatial variation of each of these types: in conventional civil wars, indirect violence is hypothesized to be positively associated with levels of prewar support for the enemy group; in contrast, direct violence is hypothesized to increase with the level of political parity between factions in a locality. The predictions are tested with a novel dataset of 1,710 municipalities in Catalonia and Aragon during the Spanish civil war (1936—1939).

Seeking Safety: Avoiding Displacement and Choosing Destinations in Civil Wars

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbey Steele
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Community Characteristics ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Direct Violence ◽  
Perverse Effect ◽  
Shared Characteristic

Despite civil war violence, some civilians stay in their communities. Those who leave choose one of many possible destinations. Drawing on fieldwork in Colombia, this article argues that the way armed groups target civilians explains households' decisions about displacement. When groups of civilians are targeted based on a shared characteristic — `collective' targeting — their best options for avoiding violence differ from those targeted selectively or indiscriminately. This article outlines conditions under which people can stay in contexts of collective targeting, and where they are likely to go if these conditions are not met. A civilian facing collective targeting could move to a rival group's stronghold, cluster with others similarly targeted, or seek anonymity in a city or different region. Community characteristics, such as whether it is urban or rural, as well as macro characteristics of the war, such as whether or not there is an ascriptive cleavage, shape which decisions are relatively safest, which in turn leads to implications for aggregate patterns. For example, clustering together has a perverse effect: even though hiding among others with similar characteristics may reduce an individual's likelihood of suffering direct violence, the community may be more endangered as it is perceived to be affiliated with an armed group. This then leads to a cycle of collective targeting and displacement, which has important implications for the development of warfare. In turn, this cycle and related cleavage formation may have long-term impacts on postwar stability and politics.

Through the prism of Spain. Socio-economic causes of different outcomes of Russian and Spanish civil wars

2017 ◽  
pp. 142-155
Author(s):  
I. Rozinskiy ◽  
N. Rozinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
World War I ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
World War ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Economic Well Being

The article examines the socio-economic causes of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1936), which, as opposed to the Russian Civil War, resulted in the victory of the “Whites”. Choice of Spain as the object of comparison with Russia is justified not only by similarity of civil wars occurred in the two countries in the XX century, but also by a large number of common features in their history. Based on statistical data on the changes in economic well-being of different strata of Spanish population during several decades before the civil war, the authors formulate the hypothesis according to which the increase of real incomes of Spaniards engaged in agriculture is “responsible” for their conservative political sympathies. As a result, contrary to the situation in Russia, where the peasantry did not support the Whites, in Spain the peasants’ position predetermined the outcome of the confrontation resulting in the victory of the Spanish analogue of the Whites. According to the authors, the possibility of stable increase of Spanish peasants’ incomes was caused by the nation’s non-involvement in World War I and also by more limited, compared to Russia and some other countries, spending on creation of heavy (primarily military-related) industry in Spain.

Studying Desertion in the spanish Civil War

Desertion ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
Théodore McLauchlin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Group Characteristics

This chapter develops the account of desertion primarily in the context of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, which clarifies the role of several variables through Spain. It looks at many different organizations on both the rebel side and the Republican side in order to examine the impact of different armed group characteristics on desertion. It uses the Spain case study to understand desertion dynamics in a particularly fascinating civil conflict. The chapter focuses on the Republican side, analyzing the dynamics of its relatively high rate of desertion at various points in the conflict. It demonstrates norms of cooperation and coercion at the micro level to statistically assess individual soldiers' decisions to fight or to flee.

scholarly journals Disloyalty and Logics of Fratricide in Civil War: Executions of Officers in Republican Spain, 1936-1939

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 1028-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore McLauchlin ◽  
Álvaro La Parra-Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Unique Data ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Military Politics

Violence within armed groups in civil wars is important and understudied. Linking literatures on civil war violence and military politics, this article asks when this fratricidal violence targets soldiers who try to defect, and when it does not. It uses a unique data set of executions of officers on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. The article finds that while much of the violence appeared to target those who actually tried to defect, many nondefectors were likely shot too, due most likely to a pervasive stereotype that officers in general were disloyal to the Republic. This stereotype was used as an information shortcut and was promoted by political actors. Accordingly, unlikely defectors were likelier to be shot in locations in which less information was available about loyalties and in which political forces that were suspicious of officers as a group were locally stronger.

Desertion, Terrain, and Control of the Home Front in Civil Wars

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (8) ◽  
pp. 1419-1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore McLauchlin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Rough Terrain ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
And Control

This article examines desertion in civil wars, focusing on the role of combatants’ hometowns in facilitating desertion. Analyzing data from the Spanish Civil War, the article demonstrates that combatants who come from hill country are considerably more likely to desert than combatants whose hometowns are on flat ground. This is because evasion is easier in rough terrain. The finding implies that the cohesion of armed groups depends on control, not just positive incentives, and that control of territory in civil wars goes beyond rebel–government contestation, and consists also of control behind the lines. The article bridges micro and macro approaches to civil wars by indicating the multiple uses to which individuals can put structural conditions like rough terrain. This helps to clarify the macro-level link between rough terrain and civil war. It also shows that micro-level research can profitably examine structural variables alongside individual characteristics and endogenous conflict dynamics.

Der griechische Bürgerkrieg 1946 bis 1949. Ereignisse und Erinnerungen / The Greek Civil War 1946 to 1949. Facts and Memories

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-119
Author(s):  
Gustav Auernheimer
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Past History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Of Greece

Abstract This article is dealing with an important chapter in the history of Greece that has hitherto received very little attention by the German research community: the Greek civil war from 1947 to 1949, whose consequences left their mark on the Greek society for a long time. The topic has to be addressed through its classification in two contexts. First in a historical context that comprises the past history and foremost the conflicts without which the armed struggle probably would not have erupted. This also includes the posthistory and the dealings with the civil war in the memory culture and politics of history, from the 1950s to the present time. A comparison with a, in some respects, similar development concerning the Spanish civil war further examines the Greek example. The second context is a theoretical one. Although research rather tends to neglect civil wars vis-a-vis wars between states, there numerous approaches to the topic of civil wars, some of which are dealt with in this article. The summary examines to which degree they apply in the case of Greece.

Intervention and non-intervention in international society: Britain's responses to the American and Spanish Civil Wars

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 1111-1129
Author(s):  
RICHARD LITTLE
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
International Order ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Ground Rule ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Self Determination

AbstractThis article aims to show that from the end of the eighteenth century, international order began to be defined in terms of ground rules relating to non-intervention and intervention, with the former being prioritised over the latter. After the Napoleonic wars, within continental Europe there was an attempt to consolidate an intervention ground rule in favour of dynastic legitimacy over the right of self-determination. By contrast, the British and Americans sought to ensure that this ground rule was not extended to the Americas where the ground rule of non-intervention was prioritised. During the nineteenth century, it was the Anglo-American position which came to prevail. Over the same period international order was increasingly bifurcated with the non-intervention ground rule prevailing in the metropolitan core and with the intervention ground rules prevailing in the periphery. This article, however, only focuses on the metropolitan core and draws on two case studies to examine the non-intervention ground rule in very different circumstances. The first examines the British response to the American Civil War in the 1860s during an era of stability in the international order. The second explores the British Response to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s when the international order was very unstable and giving way to a very different international order.

Dynamics of internal resettlement during civil war

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Balcells
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Unintended Effect ◽  
Municipal Level ◽  
Relevant Covariates

This article explores the dynamics of internal resettlement in times of civil war by using a novel dataset of all municipalities of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), which includes information on the total number of internally displaced from other parts of Spain that sought refuge in Catalan localities during the civil war. The dataset, which also incorporates information on relevant covariates, is built with a combination of primary (i.e. archival) and secondary sources. The results of the multivariate analyses indicate that political identities have a significant impact on resettlement: people tend to relocate to places where they can find others who share their political and/or ethnic identity; we see this reflected in political and ethnic alignments at the municipal level. In addition, the article uncovers a relevant dynamic in the diffusion of violence at the local level: the arrival of internal refugees in a new locality may have the unintended effect of increasing levels of direct violence due to its role in disseminating credible news of atrocities committed by the other side. The implications of this study go beyond the Spanish case and make a contribution to unpacking dynamics of violence and internal displacement in civil wars. The article also sheds light on some of the mechanisms by which refugee flows can play a role in the diffusion of violence throughout a given country.

Foreign Shipping During the Spanish Civil War

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Seas

Among the problems most frequently arising in connection with insurrections and civil wars, are those relating to the status of foreign vessels in the areas of hostilities, and the rights of contesting factions to interfere with such vessels. According to international rules of conduct gradually evolved during the nineteenth century and generally enforced in time of civil disturbance, contending factions enjoy the right to control the movements and activities of foreign shipping within territorial waters, but are not authorized to go upon the high seas and there interfere with foreign vessels unless the states having jurisdiction over such vessels have recognized the belligerency of the contestants.1

Medical Aid Provided by American, Canadian and British Nationals to the Spanish Republic during the Civil War, 1936–1939

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin F. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Medical Aid ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Private Citizens

During international or civil wars, private citizens of noncombatant nations often provide medical aid to one of the contending factions, particularly when they support a participant not favored by their own government. This paper details and analyzes the prominent campaign in the United States, Canada and Great Britain to provide medical aid to the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). The substantial medical aid that was provided clearly alleviated some suffering, but one of the major objectives of the campaign was to arouse public opinion sufficiently to end the boycott of military aid to Republicans; this objective was never achieved. Whether it be in Republican Spain, Vietnam or El Salvador, even a successful medical aid campaign to people in a military conflict may save some lives but may not affect substantially the course of the conflict. Those who are primarily interested in influencing political or military developments, hoping to advance the cause of a particular contending faction, may find tactics other than medical aid campaigns more useful in accomplishing their goals.

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