When do ties bind? Foreign fighters, social embeddedness, and violence against civilians

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Moore
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Conflict Zone ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Negative Connotation

How do foreign fighters affect civilian victimization in the civil wars they join? Scholars of civil war have gone to great lengths to explain why states and insurgent groups victimize civilians, but they have not explicitly examined the impact of foreign combatants. Furthermore, while contemporary conventional wisdom attaches an overwhelmingly negative connotation to foreign fighters, history shows that the behavior of those who travel to fight in wars far from home varies significantly, especially when it comes to interacting with local populations. To address this variation, I demonstrate how differences in the embeddedness of foreign fighter populations combine with incentives that foreign fighters face to remain in the conflict zone over the long term to shape tendencies towards civilian victimization. My findings from an analysis of insurgent groups from 1990 to 2011 suggest that, overall, foreign fighters lead to escalations in violence against civilians. When comparing across groups that recruit foreign fighters, however, levels of violence differ depending on foreign fighter populations’ coethnicity to the rebel groups they join, and the distances they travel to reach a conflict zone. Specifically, the presence of coethnic foreign fighters leads to fewer escalations in violence, relative to the recruitment of non-coethnic individuals from non-neighboring states. The study provides empirical support to the claim that degrees of embeddedness across foreign fighter populations are important indicators of when and where their presence is likely to pose significant dangers to local populations.

Not Only Individualism: The Effects of Long-Term Orientation and Other Cultural Variables on National Innovation Success

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bukowski ◽  
Seweryn Rudnicki
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Cultural Predictors ◽  
Cultural Variables ◽  
Single Pattern ◽  
The Impact

This article re-examines the effects of culture on national innovation rates. Pointing to the innovation success of some East Asian countries, it argues that the cultural dimension of individualism is not able to fully account for the role of culture in national innovativeness, and there is a need to include a wider set of cultural factors in the analysis. Several competing measures of national innovation performance over the last decade and Hofstede’s measures of culture, as well as their recently revised versions proposed by Minkov and collaborators, are employed to test the hypotheses. The findings show that, apart from individualism, long-term orientation, and flexibility, the dimensions omitted in the prior studies are positive and strong cultural predictors of national innovation intensity, whereas the role of other cultural factors finds little empirical support. The study suggests that there is no single pattern for the impact of culture on national innovation rates that should be taken into account in seeking effective innovation strategies and policies. It also highlights the need to advance the understanding of the causal mechanism between culture and innovativeness to guide further theoretical and empirical analysis.

scholarly journals Leadership Changes and Civil War Agreements: Exploring Preliminary Links

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmela Lutmar ◽  
Lesley Terris
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
First Century ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
War Termination ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Interstate Disputes ◽  
Predominant Type ◽  
Leadership Changes ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe emergence of civil wars as the predominant type of conflict in the twenty-first century has prompted scholars to reformulate and revisit many of the questions treated in the interstate conflict literature. One of these questions concerns the impact of leadership changes on policy decisions within the realm of war and peace. Studies have suggested that in interstate disputes, the coming to power of new leaders in one or both of the disputing governments increases the prospects of war termination. We argue that within the context of intrastate disputes this relationship is more complex and multilayered due to factors that are characteristic of rebel groups and civil wars. We suggest that leader overturns in rebel groups are likely to lead, under certain conditions to more, rather than less, hardline conflict positions, at least in the short term, thus hindering possible negotiation processes. We test our hypothesis on a dataset of leadership changes and agreements ending civil wars in Africa, 1975–2007.

scholarly journals The impact of foreign fighters on civil conflict outcomes

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316801772205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany S. Chu ◽  
Alex Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
The Government ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Conflict Outcomes ◽  
The Impact

There has been a great deal of discussion about the large volumes of foreign fighters involved in civil conflicts in Syria and Iraq over recent years. Yet, there remains little systematic evidence about the effect, if any, that foreign fighters have upon the conflicts they join. Existing literature distinguishes between the resources fighters bring to rebel groups and the liability they represent in regards to campaign cohesion. We seek to establish preliminary evidence as to whether or not foreign fighters contribute to the success of the campaigns they join. Our multinomial logistic and competing risks regression analyses of civil conflicts between 1946 and 2013 suggest that foreign fighters are associated with a decreased likelihood of government victory. Furthermore, we offer partial evidence to suggest that foreign fighters from non-contiguous countries are more likely to help rebels achieve a negotiated settlement or to continue their struggle against the government, but not to directly help them achieve victory.

Food price volatilities and civilian victimization in Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-214
Author(s):  
Babak Rezaeedaryakenari ◽  
Steven T. Landis ◽  
Cameron G. Thies
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Food Price ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

This paper studies the impact of food insecurity on civilian–rebel interactions. We argue that food price volatilities affect the incentives of insurgent groups and their subsequent treatment of civilians. The hypotheses developed in this study are empirically evaluated across a battery of statistical models using monthly data from a sample of 112 first administrative districts in sub-Saharan Africa. The results show that increases in food insecurity substantially raise the likelihood of insurgent groups committing violence against civilians and that districts with a higher proportion of agricultural land are at greatest risk of civilian victimization by rebel groups during these episodes of food insecurity. The implications of this analysis suggest that the human impact of food insecurity does not simply relate to nutrition and questions of governance. Food price volatilities also incentivize the use of violence against civilians by non-state actors, which is a pertinent concern of human rights organizations and policymakers.

Does corporate sustainability impact firm profitability? Evidence from India

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 1734-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shernaz Bodhanwala ◽  
Ruzbeh Bodhanwala
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Thomson Reuters ◽  
Firm Profitability ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study whether corporate sustainability impacts profitability performance. Design/methodology/approach The sample under study consists of 58 Indian firms that are consistently a part of Thomson Reuters Asset 4 ESG database. An empirical multivariate panel data model is developed to analyse the impact of sustainability (environmental, social and governance) on firm profitability. Further, the study seeks to understand whether firms ranked high on sustainability parameters perform better compared to low-ranked firms. This has been tested by applying parametric t-test. Findings The study reveals a significant positive relationship between sustainability and firm performance measures (return on invested capital, return on equity, return on assets and earnings per share). Empirical evidence suggests that firms that practice remarkable sustainable development strategies report higher profitability and have substantially low gearing level. Research limitations/implications This study provides empirical support for the practitioners, policy makers and academicians emphasising strongly on the role played by deployment of sustainable environmental, social and governance efforts in enabling firms to achieve the profit maximisation objective. In the long term, strategies that take sustainability criteria into account have the capacity to create long-term value and provide firms with competitive advantage. The findings provide impetus to many mid- and large-capitalised Indian firms to initiate the adoption of sustainable measures in business policy formulation. The market valuation perception on sustainability practices followed by Indian firms leaves scope for future research. Originality/value Empirical evidence on the link between sustained sustainability efforts by corporates and their profitability from a developing nation context is limited. This paper provides much-needed evidence in the area of sustainability performance from India – one of the largest, rapidly developing economies in the world.

Amoral Communities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Conflict Zone ◽  
Targeted Violence ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Mass Killings

This book examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. It identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal. The book augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. It focuses on Croatia in the 1990s, and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case, it is considered how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. As the book describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals' freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, the book finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.

scholarly journals Rebel constituencies and rebel violence against civilians in civil conflicts

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ottmann
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Predatory Behavior ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Government

This article examines how the civilian constituencies of rebel groups affect their use of violence against civilians. While past research has acknowledged the importance of rebel constituencies, they are primarily seen as only having an indirect effect on rebel behavior. In this study, I conceptualize rebel constituencies as central political opportunity structures for rebel groups providing incentives and imposing restraints on their use of strategic violence and the violent behavior of individual rebel fighters. In particular, I hypothesize that a constituency overlap between rebels and the government of a state acts as a restraint making large-scale violence against civilians less likely. In contrast, high levels of constituency fractionalization and polarization induce strategic violence and predatory behavior, increasing the chances of large-scale civilian victimization. I conduct a statistical analysis of rebel one-sided violence in sub-Saharan Africa using newly collected data on rebel constituencies to test these hypotheses. The results only provide limited empirical support for the hypothesized relationship between constituency overlap and rebel violence against civilians. There is clear empirical evidence, however, that heavily fractionalized and polarized rebel constituencies are associated with higher levels of violence against civilians.

The Strategic Logic of Ethnoterritorial Competition: Violence against Civilians in Africa's Civil Wars

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Wimmer ◽  
Chris Miner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Geocoded Data ◽  
Alternative Theories

Abstract This article develops and tests a new theory of violence against civilians during civil wars by combining geocoded data on African armed conflicts over the past two decades with a range of other geocoded information. The theory suggests a twofold logic of ethnic targeting aimed to enlarge the territory dominated by one's coethnics in the most effective way. First, rebels and government fighters kill civilians in areas populated in equal shares by their own and their adversary's coethnics because, in such areas, small amounts of violence suffice to tilt the local balance of power in their favor. Second, they target places close to the border between the settlement areas of their own and their adversary's coethnics as this will allow expanding the contiguous area under their control. We do not find empirical support for the three most prominent alternative theories, all of which assume that civilian victimization is independent of the political conflict over which the civil war is fought. Civilians are not more likely to be killed in areas where lootable natural resources can be found, in recently conquered territories where fighters are supposed to eliminate enemy collaborators, or where rebel forces who have established only weak control over their fighters operate.

Sexual violence and biased military interventions in civil conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Johansson ◽  
Mehwish Sarwari
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Opportunistic Behavior ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
The Impact

What is the impact of foreign troop support on combatant-perpetrated sexual violence against civilians? We hypothesize that biased troop support increases the risk of sexual violence by the subordinate party both as a consequence of strategic considerations and as a product of a situation increasingly conducive to opportunistic behavior. Time-series cross-section analyses of all civil wars during 1989–2012 are largely supportive of our expectation. Rebel groups are more likely to perpetrate sexual violence the more troop support the state receives. Likewise, state forces are more prone to commit sexual violence the more they are challenged by troops supporting the rebel group(s).

Civil Conflicts Abroad, Foreign Fighters, and Terrorism at Home

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (8) ◽  
pp. 1636-1660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Braithwaite ◽  
Tiffany S. Chu
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
New Terrorism ◽  
At Home ◽  
Empirical Analyses

Terrorist attacks in Brussels (May 2014) and Paris (January and November 2015) highlight the threat related to the arrival of foreign fighters (FFs) from civil wars elsewhere. We develop an argument suggesting that terrorism at home is systematically affected by the exit of the so-called FFs out of civil wars abroad. We contend that foreign civil conflicts ending in success for rebel groups can result in a surplus of well-trained FFs, increasing the risk of terrorism at home. By contrast, when rebel groups are defeated in foreign civil conflicts, we anticipate a restriction in the flow of FFs, which reduces the likelihood of terrorism at home. Empirical analyses on most countries for the years 1970 to 2006 support these hypotheses. Our tests also demonstrate that the flow of FFs is associated with the creation of new terrorism campaigns rather than the exacerbation of existing operations.

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