Though women tend to be considered victims of armed conflict, recognising their political agency is imperative for their inclusion in peacebuilding and combatant rehabilitation processes. Recent...Show moreThough women tend to be considered victims of armed conflict, recognising their political agency is imperative for their inclusion in peacebuilding and combatant rehabilitation processes. Recent studies suggest women’s presence is beneficial to mobilisation success, but it remains unclear whether this effect varies based on the roles women have. This research proposes two mechanisms to theorise why female presence in specific positions may increase a violent political campaign’s likelihood of success. A mobilisation mechanism suggests that women can prompt mass mobilisation, loyalty shifts and strong social capital. A legitimacy mechanism posits that they may increase external support and resources. Correlation between female participation in frontline, symbolic or leadership roles and campaign success is tested quantitatively with an analysis of 168 violent resistance campaigns drawn from the Women in Resistance dataset. Empirical results reveal that women’s presence in leadership roles may be a particular catalyst for the success of violent political campaigns. Conversely, there is no significant effect of female presence in frontline or symbolic roles on campaign outcome. This study thus contributes to the existing literature by providing a detailed analysis of women’s positions in armed mobilisation. Future research could deepen understandings of the topic by operationalising campaign outcomes in a more nuanced manner.Show less
How does economic development aid affect conflict intensity in minor civil conflicts? Previous research has found that economic development aid in civil wars can effectively reduce conflict...Show moreHow does economic development aid affect conflict intensity in minor civil conflicts? Previous research has found that economic development aid in civil wars can effectively reduce conflict intensity. It does so either directly by incentivising the population to cooperate with the government or indirectly by raising the opportunity costs of joining an insurgency. I propose that the same holds for minor civil conflicts. Due to insurgent groups’ weakness vis-à-vis the government, I argue that development aid in minor conflicts will have a greater substantive effect than in civil wars. Using data on 59 aid projects in federal states across Ethiopia, Mali, and Nigeria, I show that regions receiving development aid experience less violence than those without aid projects in regions under government control. However, an increase in development projects within these regions is associated with an increase in conflict intensity. In regions under insurgent territorial control, development aid substantially increases conflict intensity.Show less
Recent studies have attempted to explain the mixed results in the literature on environmental scarcity and intrastate conflict by exploring factors that might enable or mitigate the effects of...Show moreRecent studies have attempted to explain the mixed results in the literature on environmental scarcity and intrastate conflict by exploring factors that might enable or mitigate the effects of scarcity. However, the role of one of these factors, political corruption, remains underexplored. While scholars have made strides in uncovering whether corruption influences the scarcity-conflict relationship, they have failed to analyze its role in the causal mechanism connecting environmental scarcity to intrastate conflict. In this study, I address this gap in the literature by examining the role of political corruption in the causal mechanism linking environmental scarcity to intrastate conflict incidence. Using theory-testing process tracing in a case study of the 2012-2013 Kenyan Tana River District clashes, I demonstrate that political corruption in environmental governance can play a crucial role in the environmental scarcity-conflict mechanism by further diminishing natural resource availability. This increases confidence in the notion that political corruption might explain the mixed results in the literature. However, future research should test these findings in multiple different contexts to explore their generalizability and rule out possible alternative explanations.Show less
The utilization of cyber operations in armed conflict is a fact of life and on top of the agenda worldwide. When Russia began a large-scale military invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, many...Show moreThe utilization of cyber operations in armed conflict is a fact of life and on top of the agenda worldwide. When Russia began a large-scale military invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, many anticipated the kinetic action to be accompanied by comprehensive cyber operations. So far, cyber operations in Ukraine appear to be somewhat subdued. These cyber operations are covered by international humanitarian law (IHL) to the extent that they have a connection to armed conflict. The cyber operations that have been undertaken so far have been on the borderline of some of the most debated issues in the law regarding cyber operations. Although there is consensus that IHL applies to cyber operations during armed conflict, there is still discussion on how notions of IHL apply to cyber operations during armed conflict. Issues about the notion of “attack” and the notion of “object” are widely debated among scholars, but there is still no common understanding of the concepts. Several scholars have provided different approaches on how to apply both notions. However, the shortcoming of these different approaches is that they discuss the notions in theory, but don’t apply them in practice. This thesis wants to fill the gap of the how-question in practice by applying the key notions of “attack” and “object” of IHL to a cyber operation during an armed conflict that has already happened: the Russian-Georgian cyber conflict. This reveals that a combination of the approaches for both notions will provide the best outcome.Show less
In theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering...Show moreIn theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering that states and armed groups consist of individuals, their collective traumas might play a role in the outbreak of armed conflict. This paper articulates theoretical elements from IR, memory studies, and psychoanalysis allowing to better grasp how and why collective traumas generated by large-scale violent events may in turn engender armed conflict if they remain unhealed. This articulation leads to a refined theory and mechanism of ‘cycles of violence’, which is then qualitatively tested in two empirical cases: The United States, with 9/11 and the following invasion of Afghanistan; and Afghanistan, with the US intervention and the following insurgency. In both cases it is possible to establish with a high degree of certainty that the respective large-scale violent events caused a collective trauma which, for different reasons, remained unaddressed and participated in the outbreak of further violence. Each case thus represents a cycle of violence itself, and they represent a larger one together. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the power dynamics sometimes preventing proper healing, and sheds light on the case of Afghanistan, in which Western versions of events often dominate.Show less
The Colombian armed conflict is multi-dimensional and paramilitarism has played a key role in the exacerbation of the violence. This thesis focuses on the right-wing violence perpetrated by...Show moreThe Colombian armed conflict is multi-dimensional and paramilitarism has played a key role in the exacerbation of the violence. This thesis focuses on the right-wing violence perpetrated by paramilitary groups, and their relation to multinational corporations (MNCs), whose political role in local politics and in the waves of violence in Colombia is prominent. After a theoretical discussion on paramilitarism and multinational corporations, the empirical analysis evolves around the case study how MNCs like fruit giant Chiquita Brands International contribute to the existence of private justice groups such as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) in the Uraba region between 1997 and 2004.Show less
