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Political Communications and Behavior by Rebel Groups in Civil Wars- [electronic resource]
Political Communications and Behavior by Rebel Groups in Civil Wars - [electronic resource...
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Political Communications and Behavior by Rebel Groups in Civil Wars- [electronic resource]
자료유형  
 학위논문파일 국외
최종처리일시  
20240214100040
ISBN  
9798379774394
DDC  
320
저자명  
Becker, Michael.
서명/저자  
Political Communications and Behavior by Rebel Groups in Civil Wars - [electronic resource]
발행사항  
[S.l.]: : New York University., 2023
발행사항  
Ann Arbor : : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,, 2023
형태사항  
1 online resource(135 p.)
주기사항  
Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-01, Section: B.
주기사항  
Advisor: Dickson, Eric S.
학위논문주기  
Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2023.
사용제한주기  
This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
초록/해제  
요약The three essays in this dissertation examine different forms of behavior by militant groups in civil wars, as well as the connections between their behavior and communications. Below are the abstracts for each paper.Do strategic communications predict rebel behavior in civil wars? Evidence from militant group manifestosHow well do statements of political positions reflect actors' subsequent behavior in civil wars? Existing research on legislative dynamics indicates a relationship between elected officials' expressions and voting behavior, but it is unclear whether this relationship generalizes to other domains. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the sentiments expressed in manifestos released by militant groups involved in civil wars and the sources of revenue that such organizations opt for. To the extent that existing research on civil wars considers revenue sources, it is largely as an independent variable that influences the probability and nature of conflict occurrence. I propose to re-conceptualize funding decisions as outcomes of militants' efforts to navigate tradeoffs within their political environments that may be reflected in their formal communications. In particular, I examine whether rebel groups collect revenue directly from constituents, indirectly through means such as drug sales, or via transfers from foreign governments. Using text analysis on an original corpus of manifestos, I derive ideological position estimates for a sample of militant groups. I then combine multiple sources of data on rebel revenue gathering to assess the relationship between the positions taken and revenue-gathering decisions. In partial support of my hypotheses, I find that groups whose manifestos reflect a more international orientation do indeed tend to take more foreign contributions. The relationship between stated positions and domestic forms of funding is more ambiguous. The results have implications both for future policymaking and scholarship on militant group behavior.War on Two Fronts: How Rebels Navigate between Foreign and Domestic AudiencesWhat do rebel communications reveal about militants' target selection behavior? Some organizations primarily target civilians, while others attack government forces; some groups are domestically-focused, while others perpetrate violence on foreign soil. Explaining and predicting such behavior by militant organizations is important on both analytical and policy-relevant grounds. However, existing classifications based on qualitative estimations of ideology have failed to adequately explain variation in target selection behavior. In this paper, using a novel measure, I demonstrate that political communications in civil wars are reflective of target selection behavior. Organizations attempt to align with either a domestic or an international audience, and the observable tactical outcomes of this decision (domestic vs. foreign attacks, civilian vs. government targets) are mediated by organizational capacity. Internationally-aligned organizations tend to be agents of foreign sponsors who fund campaigns to advance their interests abroad. Sponsors wish to induce their clients to target government forces, but have imperfect influence. I conjecture that internationally-oriented organizations will be more likely to target hardened government or military targets and, on a separate dimension, foreign nationals. Locally-oriented groups, on the other hand, tend to embark on parochial, often ethnically-focused campaigns, and direct violence against their domestic, mainly civilian enemies. To shed light on how militant groups perceive the interaction between decisions on these two dimensions, I collect a corpus of rebel manifestos, which express organizations' grievances, goals, and intended strategies. I then extract relative text-based position estimates for each organization, and link these estimates with existing data on target selection behavior. The findings conform to the theoretical expectations.Cyclicality in Non-State Violence: Theory and EvidenceWhat explains recurrent fluctuations in violence within militant groups? Temporal swings in the number of attacks perpetrated are common, but lack a general explanation. I provide evidence of cycles in attacks, and provide a theory of why organizational levels of violence vary serially. First, due to the contradictions of non-state violence, there exist, simultaneously, upward and downward pressures on its use. By "contradictions," I mean that violence is both beneficial and detrimental to an organization. It can secure public support and government concessions, but can also tarnish a group's reputation and invite retaliatory violence. Second, since the relative strength of each type of pressure (upward or downward) varies inversely with how much it is accommodated, organizations face disincentives to pause at high or low levels of violence. Groups that shift tactics to accommodate one pressure find they have activated another. For example, a group that curtails violent attacks to avoid government repression finds it lacks media attention. These pressures incentivize a reprise in violence, causing the up-and- down pattern to repeat. Finally, the cyclical pattern is reinforced by endogenous interactions between militants' political environments and their decision-making processes. I provide suggestive support for the arguments by examining the Basque group ETA.
일반주제명  
Political science.
일반주제명  
Statistics.
키워드  
Civil war
키워드  
Insurgency
키워드  
Political violence
키워드  
Terrorism
키워드  
Text analysis
기타저자  
New York University Politics
기본자료저록  
Dissertations Abstracts International. 85-01B.
기본자료저록  
Dissertation Abstract International
전자적 위치 및 접속  
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