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The issue of human trafficking has received considerable attention in recent years. Despite strong cooperation among countries on the global fight against this gross violation of human rights, differences in national anti-trafficking policy and practices undermine the efficacy of international cooperation on trafficking in persons. This paper seeks to understand determinants of national efforts devoted to the eradication of human trafficking. It argues that civil conflicts impede anti-trafficking efforts of states for their adverse effects on national governments’ abilities and resources to fight against trafficking in persons. Analyses based on data coming from 173 countries over the 2003–2015 period demonstrate that civil conflicts deteriorate anti-trafficking efforts of countries. © 2021 Taylor & Francis.

How does state intervention during civil conflict affect the variation in post-agreement outcomes? While intervention in civil conflict is a widely studied topic, the conflict resolution literature...

Research on international conflict management remains largely siloed, with studies omitting conflict events and focusing on disparate conflict management strategies (e.g., mediation, or peacekeepin...

Fractious splits of rebel groups debilitate the military capacity of these organizations which increases their vulnerability to anti-rebel operations. Despite the risks of disunity and the battlefi...

What explains the variation in violence in the internationalized civil conflict? This study identifies such conflict as an adaptation of insurgency warfare by the state. The analysis of the conflic...

While the conflict literature has examined the use of forced recruitment in conflict, the question remains why groups would choose to do so when forced recruits require expensive coercion and time ...

Policymakers and scholars generally assume that, unlike in interstate wars, in civil conflicts opposing forces cannot simply ‘agree to disagree:’ in order to stop fighting, one side must collapse, ...

Do governments repress in order to defend themselves against the threat posed by the geographic proximity of victorious rebel forces? I theorize that the victory of rebel forces in armed conflict, ...

The civil conflict literature often relies on state capacity having significant impacts on the risk of, and duration of, civil war and other civil conflicts. Many characteristics of civil conflict ...

I present evidence that U.S. aid for refugees mitigates civil conflict in their origin country. My main result is that a 10 percent increase in U.S. humanitarian aid for refugees reduces conflict d...

This article examines the General Assembly's history of engagement in international peace and security, and assesses the relevance of that practice to the determination of its legal competence. It first discusses the Assembly's legal competence in international peace and security as described by the UN Charter, and then provides a catalogue of precedent to illustrate that the way in which the Assembly has engaged in such matters supports the widest possible interpretation of its powers. It surveys the Assembly's engagement in four categories of cases: foreign aggression; self-determination; apartheid; and civil conflict. For each, it considers the action taken by the Security Council, how the matters came before the Assembly, and what grounds were cited for the Assembly's interventions. It then considers the nature of the Assembly's responses, including the establishment of peacekeeping forces, recommendations regarding sanctions and the use of military force, and recommendations made to the Security Council.

While the extant literature has highlighted the importance of UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) in addressing commitment problems in civil wars, actor fragmentation presents additional challenges for conflict resolution. A higher number of competing actors not only worsens coordination problems but also aggravates the risk of opposition to a peace process, generating an environment prone to spoiler violence. This article argues that UN interventions matter more when commitment and coordination problems are worse, which corresponds to known traits of fragmented conflicts. Using data on civil conflict duration and intensity, we present evidence that UN PKOs are effective at mitigating adverse impacts of fragmentation. Fragmented conflicts are both longer and deadlier when the UN is not involved to support a peace process, while UN peacekeeping mitigates the effects of fragmentation.

The civil conflict in Colombia has gained attention in part for the inclusion of women in rebel forces and peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (...

This article studies how when post-conflict justice works alongside a peacekeeping operation following a civil conflict, a two-pronged pacifying effect is activated. While justice mechanisms deal w...

The well-established argument in the literature suggests that the higher state capacity is associatedwith the lower chance of experiencing civil conflict or higherchance of defeating the violent no...

Understanding the process by which civilians ascribe blame, praise, and intentionality to governments in conflict is key to formulating a successful counterinsurgency strategy. We conducted survey ...

Electoral politics and violent civil conflict often coexist. Citizens exposed and unexposed to violence bear the costs of conflict unevenly and, thus, conceive of militant vs. accommodation...

This work deals with a set of internecine wars that took place in Spain during the nineteenth century. Generally known as the Carlist Wars, they represent a conflict that has barely been covered by...

Recent efforts aimed at understanding women’s contributions to nonstate armed groups have produced large-scale data sets on female combatants (Wood and Thomas 2017) and more limited data on women’s...

Although government use of militias during civil conflict can ultimately undermine state authority, governments still use militias for battlefield assistance. This paper examines the selectivity of...

Literature on civil conflict effect of foreign aid provides contradictory findings. Some studies find a conflict-reducing effect of aid while for others aid sparks violent conflicts. Anothe...

The political situation in Yemen has been precarious since 2011 when popular protest broke out amid the Arab Spring, calling for President Saleh to step down. In March 2015, a Houthi insurgency took control of the capital, Sana’a and ignited a civil conflict that is now characterised by foreign political and military involvement. Since 2015, health facilities have been a primary target for airstrikes and bombing. Seaports have been blockaded barring the delivery of essential medicines and supplies, contributing to the near collapse of an already fragile health system. Since 2012, Save the Children (SC) has been implementing a Family Planning (FP) and Post-abortion Care (PAC) programme in two governorates heavily affected by the conflict. Despite the risks associated with the conflict, there remains a strong demand for SC's FP and PAC services. Ongoing programmatic support and capacity strengthening have allowed quality FP and PAC services to continue for Yemenis even when humanitarian access is impeded. Since the onset of conflict in March 2015, 16 facilities provided services to 43,218 new FP clients (with 23% accepting a long-acting method) and treated 3627 women with PAC. Over 93% of FP clients would recommend FP services at the facility to a friend or family member. Findings support growing evidence that women affected by conflict require family planning services, and that demand does not decline as long as quality services remain accessible. An adaptable reproductive health programme model that embraces innovative approaches is necessary for establishing services and maintaining quality during acute conflict.

2017 might seem to be the wrong year to be publishing a book on ‘civil wars’. For this was a year of conferences, publications and exhibitions on a rather different form of civil conflict – revolut...

Studies of women’s participation in civil conflict as armed combatants have attributed diverse motivations to such participation and examined the implications of participation for women’s empowerment in the aftermath. The authors contribute to these studies through an in-depth analysis of female combatants’ struggles for equality and empowerment during and after Nepal’s decade-long Maoist conflict. Scholars have argued that the emphasis of Maoist ideology in Nepal on the emancipation of women and on ending gender discrimination attracted a large number of women to the cause. Based on narratives of Maoist female ex-combatants, the authors investigate women’s engagement with Maoist ideology during and after the conflict. These narratives reveal that despite discourses of gender equality in Nepal’s Maoist struggle, promises around gender equality remain unkept in the period after the war. A reintegration program has offered women ex-combatants few options and has pushed women back into traditional gender roles. Struggles continue in this terrain. Incorporating intersectionality, the paper highlights how women ex-combatants’ gender identities intersect with caste and other social locations to produce diverse challenges for their lives.

Shortcomings in natural resource governance leading to economic mismanagement, political clientelism, underdevelopment and civil conflict, have caused an increase in global norms of ‘good governanc...

It is commonly believed that some rebel and terrorist groups are apt to fund their operations through human trafficking and the illicit trade in exploited labor. Recently, groups like Boko Haram ha...

This article examines the link between interregional inequality and civil conflict in a panel of 125 countries over the period 1993–2013. The results show that the level of interregional in...

This article discusses the critical portrayal of displacement, violence and trauma in two feature-length fiction films released just after the Algerian civil conflict (1991–2001): Rachida (...

From the Patriotic Front struggle against the minority rule in Rhodesia to the seven-party mujaheddin alliance in Afghanistan, inter-rebel alliances make the armed opposition more resilient and successful in the face of government repression. Why then do some rebel groups cooperate with each other while others do not? Drawing on the principal-agent theory, I argue that the presence of foreign sponsors is likely to encourage alliance formation in civil wars especially when two rebel outfits share a state sponsor. Shared sponsors may demand cooperation between their agents and credibly threaten to punish them for non-compliance. They may also insist on the establishment of umbrella institutions to improve their monitoring and sanctioning capacity, and to increase the legitimacy of their agents. I test this argument using the UCDP Actor dataset with new data on alliances between rebel groups. I find strong evidence that shared sponsors increase the probability of inter-rebel alliance.

This study seeks to improve our understanding of the causes leading to failure of de facto states. In contrast to the voluminous body of literature on sovereign state failure, the process of de facto state failure remains under-researched. Drawing upon the existing research on state failure and de facto statehood, we narrow down our theoretical explanations to a set of causes related to civil conflict, tribalism, and economic crisis. More specifically, we aim to examine the effects of tribalism, warlordism, ideological fractionalization, and economic deficiencies on the collapse and failure of de facto entities. We employ a case study of the interwar Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1996–1999) to demonstrate how the above-detailed factors contributed toward the collapse of a de facto state.

A decade-long civil conflict that leaves an estimated 200,000 people dead is no laughing matter. Yet, throughout Algeria’s ‘dark decade’ of the 1990s residents of the war-torn North African country...

Despite the prevalence of violent uprisings against the states, existing literature has produced a generalized explanation of the causes and onset of such uprisings ignoring crucial aspects of (non-state) armed group cohesion, such as their capabilities to manage intra-group tensions and rivalries. In this paper, I examine recent research in the field of civil conflict to understand the importance of investigating underlying constraints which can cause serious impediments to the capabilities of a state during the course of a war. The paper then focuses on the importance of internal strategic resources, such as pre-war and wartime sociopolitical networks in which insurgents mobilize, recruit new cadres and maintain intra-group cooperation, to suggest how it can contain the consequences of counterinsurgency operations and other state strategies on the internal cohesion of an insurgent group. A detailed case study of the Mizo National Front (MNF) in India demonstrates the argument’s plausibility.

This article examines the impact of the ethnic exclusiveness of regimes on commitment problems and hence on civil conflict duration. It argues that members of privileged in-groups in highly exclusive regimes can be trapped into compliance with the regime. Ethnic exclusion helps to construct privileged-group members as regime loyalists. They therefore fear rebel reprisals even if they surrender or defect and consequently persist in fighting. The article finds in particular that, in ethnically exclusive regimes, privileged-group members mistrust even rebels who mobilize on a nonethnic agenda and regard rebel reassurances, including nonethnic aims, as suspect. Exclusion therefore induces privileged-group cohesion, an effect more resistant to rebel reassurances than previously recognized. A case study of the Syrian civil war shows this dynamic at a micro level, and a cross-national statistical analysis gives partial evidence that it lengthens civil conflicts on a larg`e scale.

Geographic variation in rebels’ use of terrorism is not well understood. This article explains the use of terrorism in civil conflict through examining geographic variation in terrorist attacks acr...

Civil wars with foreign intervention tend to be longer, bloodier and more intractable than other conflicts. Like the carnivorous Venus flytrap, which snaps shut on its unsuspecting prey before digesting them, intervening states can find themselves ensnared in intractable civil wars, a process colloquially referred to here as the “intervention trap.” This special issue investigates the causes and consequences of foreign intervention decision-making, building off an emerging scholars’ workshop held in Ottawa, Canada in 2016. The contributions from this growing network of intervention scholars were subjected to a multi-stage peer-review selection process. Nine papers by 10 authors were selected for the special issue based on their theoretical and methodological pluralism and subject-matter expertise. As civil conflicts and foreign interventions become more frequent and intense, this collection will complement the study and practice of military intervention in civil wars and ongoing conflicts around t...

This article focuses on international intervention into civil conflict by international rivals; that is, the phenomenon of two states, locked in a long-term and ongoing acrimonious relationship, intervening on opposing sides of a civil conflict occurring in a third party. International rivalry, it is argued, is an ongoing strategic relationship in which the push of the past and the pull of the future engenders balancing behaviour vis a vis third-party civil conflicts. This argument is evaluated in the context of three cases of rivalry intervention: Afghanistan (India–Pakistan); Angola (USSR–USA); and Lebanon (Israel–Syria). While rivalry dynamics are not the sole motivator for intervention in each case, rivals do worry about the future, and as a result consider and assess the implications of their opponents’ involvement in a civil conflict in the context of potential future confrontation.

An expanding body of literature maintains that gender inequality heightens the probability of intrastate conflict by creating a structure of violence. The paper proposes the legal system as the missing link between social norms and conflict occurrence. Gender neutrality of the penal code coheres with norms of equality and, further, embodies egalitarian, progressive values associated with pacific norms of conflict resolution. The criminalization of rape enhances female empowerment by offering a legal commitment on the part of the state to safeguard women’s physical security. More broadly, legal prohibitions against rape protect women and other vulnerable individuals from sexual aggression. The statistical analysis uses novel data on rape legislation for 194 states over the 1965 to 2005 time period. The length of punitive sentence proxies for the stringency of rape legislation. The empirical findings demonstrate that longer punitive sentences against rape crimes are associated with a significantly l...

To end sexual violence in civil conflict is often mentioned as motivation and aim for contemporary interventions by the international community. But what types of measures are used for this end? Th ...

The demolition of castles following the English Civil War is often seen as an inevitable consequence of the conflict, with their slighting often being ascribed to a need to prevent further bloodshed and punish the ruling elite. However, recent studies have demonstrated that the destruction of elite buildings during this period was far from straightforward, and this complexity is reflected in the methodology employed to damage them. At Sheffield, so extensive was this damage that, less than a century later, not a trace remained of what had once been one of the largest castles in South Yorkshire. Whilst little remains of the building itself, the rare survival of a set of demolition accounts, alongside a large number of other sources including personal correspondence, estate rentals and town records, means it is possible to explore in great detail the circumstances of the castle’s slighting. Through these a far more nuanced picture of civil conflict emerges with the castle’s destruction taking place within a...

Regional economic integration has become the dominant development pathway promoted, endorsed, and followed by many developing country governments in South East Asia and globally. Focusing on hydrop...

Most studies on internal armed conflict focus on the dyadic interaction between the state and a rebel group, leaving less attention to inter-group fighting. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study argues that the interplay between economic and political inequality and weak state capacity increases the risk of non-state conflict. An empirical analysis of 178 non-state conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1989 and 2011 provides support for the theorized conditional effect, but only for the role of economic inequality. The effect of political exclusion in the context of a weak state is not confirmed, suggesting that such conditions may be more prone to violence of another kind (i.e., mobilization against the state). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of a functioning state for maintaining peaceful inter-group relations, while they also lend support to earlier research that reports divergent effects of economic and political inequalities on civil conflict risk.

The demobilisation of rival armed forces in negotiated transitions from civil war to peace represents a practical challenge and a theoretical puzzle. From the point of view of the former warring parties, demobilisation is hazardous and hence requires a minimum level of trust, which often requires that both sides take reciprocal steps to demonstrate minimum levels of commitments. On the other hand, existing literature emphasises the role of third-party guarantors in creating the security necessary for demobilisation. We argue that the credibility of third-party guarantors is largely unexplained, and instead propose that the former warring parties themselves can overcome distrust by implementing political accommodation measures before demobilisation, such as transitional power sharing, release of prisoners of war, and amnesty. In an analysis of 34 peace processes, we find support for our expectation that implementation of accommodation measures facilitates demobilisation processes, whereas deploymen...

This article examines the role of the Macedonian Question in the 1944 December Uprising (Dekemvriana) in Greece. While the Dekemvriana is commonly portrayed in right–left terminology in the historiography, this article argues that part of the reason for the left’s failure was their inability to manage the Macedonian ethnic component of the struggle, either within their armed forces or in their relationship with Yugoslavia. As such, this article integrates the early phases of the Greek Civil War into the broader literature on minorities in civil conflict, while simultaneously exposing some of the myths about Macedonian involvement that result from its contemporary political ramifications.

The world is currently facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. The growing number of people displaced by civil conflict or natural disasters has increased dramatically in the recent years and this is posing enormous challenges to host countries. However, to date economic impacts of refugees in host and sending countries are controversial and arguably understood. Therefore, the aim of this article is to analyse how the traditional economic approach of migration and labour can help to understand and manage the refugees’ situation, as well as their potential benefits for all the parties involved. The present research concludes that, in the long run, refugee migration may have positive outcomes for sending and host economies, and for themselves. However, it is also emphasized that carefully designed refugee policies are critical to meet that goal, mainly focusing on two aspects: identification and integration.

While much of the international coverage on the Maghreb has focused on the ‘new threats’ the region faces, such as attacks by Islamic extremists, civil conflict or state collapse, its stability con...

Analyzing the changes to gender equality in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, this manuscript evaluates whether civil conflict creates new openings for women’s empowerment. Recently, the li...

Crows on the Wire (COTW) is an intermedial project deploying applied theatre, educational drama and digital performance [Dixon, S. (2007). Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance Art and Installation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press] to explore the recent history of the peace process in Northern Ireland – specifically the ‘transition’ of the police force from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) to the Police Services Northern Ireland in November 2001. This ‘rebranding’ was a key element of the Good Friday Agreement (1998) that nominally ended the civil conflict known as ‘The Troubles’. The COTW project, delivered by the Verbal Arts Centre based in Derry/Londonderry, expresses the anger and disaffection felt by some members of the RUC and the impact that this had on their sense of identity. It also addresses the perception that the RUC was sectarian and corrupt.

We evaluate the effectiveness of anti-insurgent violence as a means to suppress insurgency with micro-level data from the Iraq War. Our findings suggest that while violence against insurgents increases the incidence of future insurgent attacks, the intensity of this violence can significantly influence the outcome. Rather than shifting monotonically, the effect is actually curvilinear, first rising, and then contracting. We argue that at low to moderate levels, violence against insurgents creates opportunities for these groups to signal strength and resolve, which enables them to build momentum, heighten civilian cooperation, and diminish political support for counterinsurgency efforts in these forces’ home countries. The result is an escalation in insurgent attacks. However, at higher levels, this effect should plateau and taper off as insurgent attrition rises, and as civilian fears over personal safety displace grievances that might otherwise provoke counter-mobilization. Our empirical tests on...

Does the inclusion of rebel parties into the post-conflict political process help contribute to peace after the end of conflict? In this article we examine whether the transformation of rebel groups into political parties actually leads to the development of a durable peace after a civil war. Examining the likelihood of recurrence of civil wars in a country and recurrence of conflict in government–rebel group dyads after a settlement, we find that the inclusion and participation of former rebel parties in national government has an important impact on the likelihood of a durable post-settlement peace. Most importantly, not excluding major rebel parties from access to governing institutions is the most important factor in promoting post-conflict peace.

This essay argues that historical and identity factors, economic fears and alienation from the new government in Kyiv were only part of the reason for the rise of the separatist movement in the Donbas, Ukraine, in the spring of 2014. They set a baseline, but one not high enough to account for the creation of two mini-‘Republics’ and a prolonged war, without considering the effect of Russian sponsorship and the role of local elites, mainly from the literal and metaphorical ‘Family’ of former President Viktor Yanukovych.