The Enemy of My Enemy: Rebel Group Strategies at the Onset of Civil Conflicts

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dc.contributor.advisorButt, Ahsan
dc.creatorKayser, Courtney
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-17T19:05:50Z
dc.date.available2023-03-17T19:05:50Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation seeks to explain the why some rebel groups target the state while others target fellow armed groups. Much of the literature focuses on features of the state to explain intrastate violence, but I propose to turn the spotlight onto groups themselves, specifically their organizational control structure and relative material capabilities. At the onset of a civil conflict, groups can 1) target the state, 2) target other groups, 3) engage in mixed targeting, or 4) engage in reactive/no targeting. I argue that organizational structure informs which groups are likely to view as their primary threat, while relative capabilities provide groups with agency in combat: those with high/symmetric capabilities have focus, while those with low capabilities are more opportunistic. Through an examination of five civil conflicts in post-Soviet and post-Communist countries and statistical modeling with a novel dataset, I demonstrate that these two variables in conjunction with one another map onto the varied configurations of group targeting.
dc.format.extent428 pages
dc.format.mediumdoctoral dissertations
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1920/13199
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsCopyright 2022 Courtney Kayser
dc.rights.urihttps://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0
dc.subjectCivil conflict
dc.subjectCivil war
dc.subjectMixed methods
dc.subjectNationalism
dc.subjectPost-Soviet
dc.subjectRebel group
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical science
dc.subject.keywordsInternational relations
dc.subject.keywordsSlavic studies
dc.titleThe Enemy of My Enemy: Rebel Group Strategies at the Onset of Civil Conflicts
dc.typeText
thesis.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
thesis.degree.grantorGeorge Mason University
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D. in Political Science

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