Blowback or overblown? Why civilians under threat support invasive foreign intervention

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332110440
Author(s):  
Austin J Knuppe
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
Military Tactics ◽  
Territorial Control

How do military tactics shape civilian support for foreign intervention? Critics contend that invasive tactics undermine popular support by alienating the civilian population. Counterexamples suggest that civilians will support invasive tactics when foreign counterinsurgents are willing and able to mitigate a proximate threat. I reconcile these divergent findings by arguing that civilian support is a function of threat perception based on three interacting heuristics: social identity, combatant targeting, and territorial control. To evaluate my theory, I enumerate a survey among Iraqi residents in Baghdad during the anti-ISIS campaign. Respondents preferred more invasive tactics when foreign counterinsurgents assisted the most effective local members of the anti-ISIS coalition. Across sectarian divides, however, respondents uniformly opposed the deployment of foreign troops. These findings suggest that in regime-controlled communities, civilians will support counterinsurgents who are invasive enough to mitigate insurgent threats, but not too invasive as to undermine local autonomy.

Is It Mainly Tactics?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Omar Ashour
Keyword(s):  
Regime Type ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Military Tactics ◽  
Combat Effectiveness ◽  
External Power ◽  
The Military ◽  
Academic Study

This chapter introduces the puzzle of the military endurance and combat effectiveness of ISIS/IS, though outnumbered and outgunned by substantially stronger state and nonstate militaries. Beginning with the academic study of insurgency dating back to Lawrence, Mao, Templar, Lansdale, Guevara, Galula, Hoffman and more recent scholars; this book explores traditional factors associated with insurgency success, such as the support of an external power, popular support from the disaffected population, sanctuary, geography or topography, regime type, or other factors, which might, individually or in combination, be explanatory of ISIS/IS endurance and expansion. Most of those factors are found not to be especially significant, so the chapter focuses on the military strategies and tactics employed by ISIS/IS and central to its successes. The chapter then argues that the military tactics employed by ISIS/IS in the four countries and elsewhere better explain their expansion and endurance. The chapter concludes by outlining a framework of analysis explaining ISIS/IS combat effectiveness in the four countries and beyond.

The Wrong Kind of Intervention in Syria

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aslı Bâli ◽  
Aziz Rana
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Security ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
External Forces ◽  
The Military

This chapter focuses on the United Nations's intervention in Syria since early 2011, with particular emphasis on its efforts to address the civil war's international security dimensions, to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the civilian population, and to create a political framework for conflict resolution. It first considers how local and external forces have generated cyclical dynamics within Syria that not only have compromised each prong of the organization's work but also have led to increasingly disastrous results. It then discusses the UN's approach to Syria through the Security Council, along with the work of the organization's humanitarian agencies. It also describes the repeated failure of peace and humanitarian efforts in Syria, emphasizing the multiple forms of foreign intervention currently at play in the country and the extent to which such intervention—working to prolong the military character of the conflict—is fundamentally divorced from and at odds with UN initiatives.

Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rose ◽  
William Mishler ◽  
Neil Munro
Keyword(s):  
Popular Support

Working Hard to Achieve Self-Defining Group Goals: A Social Identity Analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly S. Fielding ◽  
Michael A. Hogg
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Identity Model ◽  
Group Goals ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Substantial Effort

Summary: A social identity model of effort exertion in groups is presented. In contrast to most traditional research on productivity and performance motivation, the model is assumed to apply to groups of all sizes and nature, and to all membership contingent norms that specify group behaviors and goals. It is proposed that group identification renders behavior group-normative and encourages people to behave in line with group norms. The effect should be strengthened among people who most need consensual identity validation from fellow members, and in intergroup contexts where there is inescapable identity threat from an outgroup. Together these processes should encourage people to exert substantial effort on behalf of their group.

Processing of Social Identity Threats

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natascha de Hoog
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Negative Group ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Neutral Group ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Identity Threats ◽  
Group Information ◽  
Source Study

The underlying process of reactions to social identity threat was examined from a defense motivation perspective. Two studies measured respondents’ social identification, after which they read threatening group information. Study 1 compared positive and negative group information, attributed to an ingroup or outgroup source. Study 2 compared negative and neutral group information to general negative information. It was expected that negative group information would induce defense motivation, which reveals itself in biased information processing and in turn affects the evaluation of the information. High identifiers should pay more attention to, have higher threat perceptions of, more defensive thoughts of, and more negative evaluations of negative group information than positive or neutral group information. Findings generally supported these predictions.

Managing a Social Identity Threat

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Pagliaro ◽  
Francesca Romana Alparone ◽  
Maria Giuseppina Pacilli ◽  
Angelica Mucchi-Faina
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Status Group ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Social Creativity ◽  
Threatening Situation

We examined how members of a low status group react to a social identity threat. We propose that expressing an ambivalent evaluation toward the ingroup may represent a way to manage such a threatening situation. For this study, 131 undergraduates’ identification with Italians was assessed. Participants were divided into groups, according to a situational identity threat (high vs. low). In line with hypotheses, low identifiers expressed more ambivalence toward the ingroup in the high (vs. low) threat condition. The reversed pattern emerged for high identifiers. This effect was mediated by the perception of intragroup variability, a well-known social creativity strategy. Results confirmed our interpretation of ambivalence as a form of social creativity, and are discussed in terms of social identity concerns.

I Want to Be Like You

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Matschke ◽  
Kai Sassenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Internal Motivation ◽  
Avoidance Strategies ◽  
Social Identity Development

Entering a new group provides the potential of forming a new social identity. Starting from self-regulation models, we propose that goals (e.g., internal motivation to enter the group), strategies (e.g., approach and avoidance strategies), and events (e.g., the group’s response) affect the development of the social self. In two studies we manipulated the group’s response (acceptance vs. rejection) and assessed internal motivation as well as approach and avoidance strategies. It was expected, and we found, that when newcomers are accepted, their use of approach strategies (but not avoidance strategies) facilitates social identification. In line with self-completion theory, for highly internally motivated individuals approach strategies facilitated social identification even upon rejection. The results underline the active role of newcomers in their social identity development.

Knowledge Contribution in Organizations via Social Media

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Behringer ◽  
Kai Sassenberg ◽  
Annika Scholl
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Expectancy Theory ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Willingness To Contribute ◽  
Social Media Tool

Abstract. Knowledge exchange via social media is crucial for organizational success. Yet, many employees only read others’ contributions without actively contributing their knowledge. We thus examined predictors of the willingness to contribute knowledge. Applying social identity theory and expectancy theory to knowledge exchange, we investigated the interplay of users’ identification with their organization and perceived usefulness of a social media tool. In two studies, identification facilitated users’ willingness to contribute knowledge – provided that the social media tool seemed useful (vs. not-useful). Interestingly, identification also raised the importance of acquiring knowledge collectively, which could in turn compensate for low usefulness of the tool. Hence, considering both social and media factors is crucial to enhance employees’ willingness to share knowledge via social media.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document