Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T21:33:59.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

External Rebel Sponsorship and Civilian Abuse: A Principal-Agent Analysis of Wartime Atrocities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2014

Idean Salehyan ,
David Siroky  and
Reed M. Wood
Get access

Abstract

Although some rebel groups work hard to foster collaborative ties with civilians, others engage in egregious abuses and war crimes. We argue that foreign state funding for rebel organizations greatly reduces incentives to “win the hearts and minds” of civilians because it diminishes the need to collect resources from the population. However, unlike other lucrative resources, foreign funding of rebel groups must be understood in principal-agent terms. Some external principals—namely, democracies and states with strong human rights lobbies—are more concerned with atrocities in the conflict zone than others. Multiple state principals also lead to abuse because no single state can effectively restrain the organization. We test these conjectures with new data on foreign support for rebel groups and data on one-sided violence against civilians. Most notably, we find strong evidence that principal characteristics help influence agent actions.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , Summer 2014 , pp. 633 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahms, Max. 2008. What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterinsurgency Strategy. International Security 32 (4):78–105.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2011. The Battle for Libya: Killings, Disappearances, and Torture. London: Amnesty International.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1970. On Violence. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
Bajoria, Jayshree. 2010. Backgrounder: Lashkar-e-Taiba. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.Google Scholar
Balcells, Laia. 2011. Continuation of Politics by Two Means: Direct and Indirect Violence in Civil War. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (3):397–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bapat, Navin. 2006. State Bargaining with Transnational Terrorist Groups. International Studies Quarterly 50 (1):213–30.Google Scholar
Bob, Clifford. 2005. The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clark, William Roberts, and Golder, Matt. 2006. Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analysis. Political Analysis 14 (1):63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braumoeller, Bear. 2004. Hypothesis Testing and Multiplicative Interaction Terms. International Organization 58 (4):807–20.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, and Lujala, Päivi. 2005. Accounting for Scale: Measuring Geography in Quantitative Studies of Civil War. Political Geography 24 (4):399–418.Google Scholar
Busby, Joshua. 2010. Moral Movements and Foreign Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Byman, Daniel, Chalk, Peter, Hoffman, Bruce, Rosenau, William, and Brannan, David. 2001. Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byman, Daniel, and Kreps, Sarah. 2010. Agents of Destruction? Applying Principal-Agent Analysis to State-Sponsored Terrorism. International Studies Perspectives 11 (1):1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Checkel, Jeffrey, ed. 2013. Transnational Dynamics of Civil War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cingranelli, David, and Pasquarello, Thomas. 1985. Human Rights Practices and the Distribution of US Foreign Aid to Latin American Countries. American Journal of Political Science 29 (3):539–63.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 2004. Greed and Grievance in Civil War. Oxford Economic Papers 56 (4):563–95.Google Scholar
Cunningham, David, Gleditsch, Kristian, and Salehyan, Idean. 2009. It Takes Two: A Dyadic Analysis of Civil War Duration and Outcome. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (4):570–97.Google Scholar
Day, Christopher. 2011. The Fates of Rebels: Insurgencies in Uganda. Comparative Politics 43 (4):439–58.Google Scholar
DeMeritt, Jacqueline. Forthcoming. Delegating Death: Military Intervention and Government Killing. Journal of Conflict Resolution.Google Scholar
De Soysa, Indra, and Neumayer, Eric. 2007. Resource Wealth and the Risk of Civil War Onset: Results from a New Dataset of Natural Resource Rents, 1970–1999. Conflict Management and Peace Science 24 (3):201–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downes, Alexander B. 2006. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: The Causes of Civilian Victimization in War. International Security 30 (4):152–95.Google Scholar
Downes, Alexander B. 2007. Draining the Sea by Filling the Graves: Investigating the Effectiveness of Indiscriminate Violence as a Counterinsurgency Strategy. Civil Wars 9 (4):420–44.Google Scholar
Eck, Kristine, and Hultman, Lisa. 2007. One-Sided Violence Against Civilians in War: Insights from New Fatality Data. Journal of Peace Research 44 (2):233–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1994. Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes. American Political Science Review 88 (3):577–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forsythe, David. 1992. Democracy, War, and Covert Action. Journal of Peace Research 29 (4):385–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gates, Scott. 2002. Recruitment and Allegiance: The Microfoundations of Rebellion. Journal of Conflict Revolution 46 (1):111–30.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Elisabeth, Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Lujala, Päivi, and Rød, Jan Ketil. 2005. Conflict Diamonds: A New Dataset. Conflict Management and Peace Science 22 (3):257–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff. 2006. A Theory of Categorical Terrorism. Social Forces 84 (4):2027–46.Google Scholar
Haddad, Simon. 2006. The Origins of Popular Support for Lebanon's Hezbollah. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29 (1):21–34.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie. 2008. Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights Enforcement Problem. International Organization 62 (4):689–716.Google Scholar
Hathaway, Oona. 2001. Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference? Yale Law Journal 111 (8):1935–2042.Google Scholar
Hintze, Jerry L., and Nelson, Ray D.. 1998. Violin Plots: A Box Plot-Density Trace Synergism. The American Statistician 52 (2):181–84.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Daniel. 2004. The Civilian Target in Sierra Leone and Liberia: Political Power, Military Strategy, and Humanitarian Intervention. African Affairs 103 (411):211–26.Google Scholar
Hovil, Lucy, and Werker, Erik. 2005. Portrait of a Failed Rebellion: An Account of Rational, Sub-Optimal Violence in Western Uganda. Rationality and Society 17 (1):5–34.Google Scholar
Hultman, Lisa. 2007. Battle Losses and Rebel Violence: Raising the Costs for Fighting. Terrorism and Political Violence 19 (2):205–22.Google Scholar
Hultman, Lisa. 2009. The Power to Hurt in Civil War: The Strategic Aim of RENAMO Violence. Journal of Southern African Studies 35 (4):821–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hultman, Lisa. 2012. Attacks on Civilians in Civil War: Targeting the Achilles Heel of Democratic Governments. International Interactions 38 (2):164–81.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2011. Libya: Opposition Forces Should Protect Civilians and Hospitals. Press release, 13 July. Available at <http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/07/13/libya-opposition-forces-should-protect-civilians-and-hospitals>. Accessed 17 December 2013..+Accessed+17+December+2013.>Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy. 2006. Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War. American Political Science Review 100 (3):429–47.Google Scholar
Kaldor, Mary. 1999. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 1999. Wanton and Senseless? The Logic of Massacres in Algeria. Rationality and Society 11 (3):243–85.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N., and Balcells, Laia. 2010. International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict. American Political Science Review 104 (3):415–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, Margaret, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, D. Roderick, and McCubbins, Mathew. 1991. The Logic of Delegation: Congressional Parties and the Appropriations Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kocher, Matthew Adam, Pepinsky, Thomas B., and Kalyvas, Stathis N.. 2011. Aerial Bombing and Counterinsurgency in the Vietnam War. American Journal of Political Science 55 (2):201–18.Google Scholar
Kreutz, Joakim. 2008. UCDP One-Sided Violence Codebook, v.1.3. Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Kydd, Andrew, and Walter, Barbara. 2002. Sabotaging the Peace: The Politics of Extremist Violence. International Organization 56 (2):263–96.Google Scholar
Lamb, Christopher, and Cinnamond, Martin. 2009. Unity of Effort: Key to Success in Afghanistan. Strategic Forum 248 (October). Institute for National Strategic Studies. Fort McNair, DC: National Defense University.Google Scholar
Lake, David. 2002. Rational Extremism: Understanding Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. Dialogue IO 1 (1):15–29.Google Scholar
Leiby, Michele. 2009. Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru. International Studies Quarterly 53 (2):445–68.Google Scholar
Lichbach, Mark Irving. 1995. The Rebel's Dilemma. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lujala, Päivi. 2009. Deadly Combat over Natural Resources: Gems, Petroleum, Drugs, and the Severity of Armed Civil Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (1):50–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyall, Jason. 2009. Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks?: Evidence from Chechnya. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (3):331–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mampilly, Zachariah Cherian. 2011. Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life During War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., and Jaggers, Keith. 2010. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2010. Dataset Users' Manual. Center for Systemic Peace. Available at <http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm>. Accessed 17 December 2013.. Accessed 17 December 2013.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Marshall,+Monty+G.,+and+Jaggers,+Keith.+2010.+Polity+IV+Project:+Political+Regime+Characteristics+and+Transitions,+1800–2010.+Dataset+Users'+Manual.+Center+for+Systemic+Peace.+Available+at+.+Accessed+17+December+2013.>Google Scholar
Mason, T. David, and Krane, Dale A.. 1989. The Political Economy of Death Squads: Toward a Theory of the Impact of State-Sanctioned Terror. International Studies Quarterly 33 (2):175–98.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John, and Zald, Mayer N.. 1977. Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory. American Journal of Sociology 82 (6):1212–41.Google Scholar
Meernik, James, Krueger, Eric, and Poe, Steven. 1998. Testing Models of US Foreign Policy: Foreign Aid During and After the Cold War. Journal of Politics 60 (1):63–85.Google Scholar
Merom, Gil. 2003. How Democracies Lose Small Wars: State, Society, and the Failures of France in Algeria, Israel in Lebanon, and the United States in Vietnam. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Metelits, Claire. 2010. Inside Insurgency: Violence, Civilians, and Revolutionary Group Behavior. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Minter, William. 1994. Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Neil. 2004. Agents of Atrocity: Leaders, Followers, and the Violation of Human Rights in Civil War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Murdie, Amanda, and Bhasin, Tavishi. 2011. Aiding and Abetting: Human Rights INGOs and Domestic Protest. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (2):163–91.Google Scholar
Murdie, Amanda, and Davis, David. 2012. Shaming and Blaming: Using Events Data to Assess the Impact of Human Rights INGOs. International Studies Quarterly 56 (1):1–16.Google Scholar
Nielson, Daniel, and Tierney, Michael. 2003. Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform. International Organization 57 (2):241–76.Google Scholar
Poe, Steven. 1991. Human Rights and the Allocation of US Military Assistance. Journal of Peace Research 28 (2):205–16.Google Scholar
Poe, Steven, and Tate, C. Neal 1994. Repression of Human Rights to Personal Integrity in the 1980s: A Global Analysis. American Political Science Review 88 (4):853–72.Google Scholar
Prunier, Gérard. 2009. Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Regan, Patrick. 2000. Civil Wars and Foreign Powers: Outside Intervention in Intrastate Conflict. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Risse, Thomas, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1999. The Socialization of International Human Rights Norms into Domestic Practices: Introduction. In The Power of Human Rights: Google Scholar
International Norms and Domestic Change, edited by Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Stephen C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, 1–38. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rozen, Laura. 1999. Arm the KLA? Salon. 1 April. Available at <http://www.salon.com/1999/04/01/newsa950728514/>. Accessed 14 November 2012..+Accessed+14+November+2012.>Google Scholar
Rustad, Siri Aas, and Binningsbø, Helga Malmin. 2012. A Price Worth Fighting for? Natural Resources and Conflict Recurrence. Journal of Peace Research 49 (4):531–46.Google Scholar
Salehyan, Idean. 2009. Rebels Without Borders: Transnational Insurgencies in World Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Salehyan, Idean. 2010. The Delegation of War to Rebel Organizations. Journal of Conflict Resolution 54 (3):493–515.Google Scholar
Salehyan, Idean, Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, and Cunningham, David E.. 2011. Explaining External Support for Insurgent Groups. International Organization 65 (4):709–44.Google Scholar
Sappington, David E.M. 1991. Incentives in Principal-Agent Relationships. Journal of Economic Perspectives 5 (2):45–66.Google Scholar
Schultz, Kenneth. 2010. The Enforcement Problem in Coercive Bargaining: Interstate Conflict over Rebel Support in Civil Wars. International Organization 64 (2):281–312.Google Scholar
Singer, J. David, Bremer, Stuart, and Stuckey, John. 1972. Capability Distribution, Uncertainty, and Major Power War, 1820–1965. In Peace, War, and Numbers, edited by Russett, Bruce, 19–48. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack, and Borghard, Erica. 2011. The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny Not a Pound. American Political Science Review 105 (3):437–56.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Jeremy M. 2007. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed M. 2010. Rebel Capability and Strategic Violence Against Civilians. Journal of Peace Research 47 (5):601–14.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed M. and Kathman, Jacob D.. 2014. Too Much of a Bad Thing? Civilian Victimization and Bargaining in Civil War. British Journal of Political Science (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Young, John. 1997. Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, 1975–1991. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, Philip. 2007. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Salehyan Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Salehyan Supplementary Material(File)
File 34.4 KB