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Violence After Victory? Civil Wars, One-Sided Wins, and Terrorism in the Post-Conflict Period Perspectives on Terrorism

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Abstract

Our research juxtaposes terrorism with intrastate wars. We start from the assumption that terrorism is politically motivated and examine the persistence of these motivations following one-sided civil war victories. Using a difference-indifference (DID) model and benchmark sensitivity analysis, we analyse over 70 terrorist groups active during civil wars from 1970-2014. We find that one-sided insurgent victories are both less frequent and less stable than one-sided incumbent wins. Post-conflict terrorism is purposeful in the sense that actors employ this form of violence to express dissatisfaction with war outcomes. In general, terrorism by pro-government actors drops off sharply in the post-conflict period; yet terrorism by anti-government actors tends to increase. This increase is particularly noteworthy following one-sided insurgent victories; the regime change inherent in such victories does little to quell the motivation for terrorist violence among ancillary nonstate actors in the postwar period.




*




Abstract:
           
          
 
   






Keywords: 

* Corresponding author: Kathryn Lauren Roman Banda, University of New Mexico, e-mail:
kathrynromanbanda@gmail.com

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
Introduction







       




               


Figure 1. Sample Population of Civil Wars Involving Terrorism Organised by Type of Ending
1970-2014
            

   

          


     


Perspectives on Terrorism




           
           

 

            
       


   




Literature Review

      terrorism          
               
     

            
          
   terrorist group   


  

Terrorist groups guerillas




   








             
             

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism


              


   



during
*


 




Figure 2. Global Terrorist Attacks and Related Deaths 1970-2016
          
           




Perspectives on Terrorism



   



             

  




              


          
  
         




         





           

minimal
            
 maximal












Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism

     

           



            

spoiling



          


            

           


            





   








   
   


              
         
Intra-war 




Perspectives on Terrorism


  




Figure 3. Population of Terrorist Groups Organised by Goals and Ideologies 1970-2014
Theory

        
    

  


 victory  
          



Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
               
defeated. With defeated the UCDP means that their military capability is destroyed to the
     
  
again, if there is a new incompatibility or if there are new actors and goals of that party.


 






 
 



           

    






       

Hypothesis 1. Groups aligned with the civil war winner will reduce terrorism in the post-
war period.





Hypothesis 2. Groups aligned with the civil war loser will increase terrorism in the post-




Perspectives on Terrorism



 







primary insurgents

 






           






               


Research Methodology



Extended Data
on Terrorist Groups 



      

   

§ 


 


Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
change
 




          

            
               



          





  


               

onset time 
              





          


 as-if  
in
vitro 

 parallel trends assumption

Attacks.
Attacks^'
                   
pre
post

Perspectives on Terrorism


     

 
          
Z
       
             

    
   

 


Table 1. Regression Model Test of Parallel Trends Assumption for Time Periods One and Two
1970-2014
             
                







Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
              



           


 

           

all 

              
          



**
 
          
  
      


††
      
              
         war for central control 







       
       


  


Perspectives on Terrorism




sensmakr

      

     


central war
             
              
    


 

Figure 4. Contour plot of DID model robustness to confounding benchmarked using
the control for the centrality of the war (CW)

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
Results and Discussion
  
             




  positive 



Table 2. Negative Binomial Difference-in-Difference Model of the Effect of Insurgent Victories on
Terrorist Attacks 1970-2014

Perspectives on Terrorism

              
               
       
   
            
         





           


Hypotheses 1 and 2
      

Hypotheses 1




Hypothesis 2
Figures 5a - 5b. Comparison of Terrorist Activity During One-Sided Insurgent and Incumbent
Victories 1970 – 2014

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
          
        

 
Hypothesis 1
‡‡
 
increase





 

     goals       actual 


            

           
 

ideologies  

               
             
Hypothesis 2 




Perspectives on Terrorism

          





  
Hypothesis 1§§


            












Conclusion






 




      



      

 


Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
Ms Kathryn Lauren Roman Banda is a doctoral degree candidate in international relations and
research methodology. Her methodological scholarship is interdisciplinary. Her political science
research focuses on the intersection of civil wars with outcomes such as terrorism and sexual
violence. Her doctoral dissertation dissects the responses of terrorist groups to economic shocks;
this research highlights violence within central sub-Saharan Africa, including the Sahel region
and the Lake Chad River basin. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1647-197X
              
peacekeeping within war-torn areas. Her research combines qualitative, archival research with
quantitative methods. Her forthcoming publications analyse the effectiveness of the United Nations
peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, as well as the use of United Nations radio broadcasts for
mitigating wartime violence. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2592-8556

Perspectives on Terrorism

Appendix
Table A-1. Terrorist Groups Active During Civil Wars 1970-2014












    

 

   
   


   



 

  


 

  


 

  


 

   
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

 
    
 

   

 

   
 

   
 

   
   


   


    

    
 

   

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism

 

  


 

  


 

  


    

    
    
 

   
    
 

  


 

  


 

  


 

  


   


 

  


 

  



   



   



 

  


   


 

  


   


   


   



   



Perspectives on Terrorism


 

  



    
 

 



   


 

  


 

   

 

   
 

 


 

  


 

 


 

   
    
    
    
    
 

   
    

    

 

   

 

   
    

    

 

   
 

   

 

  
    

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
Table A-2. Descriptive Statistics
Table A-3. Pairwise Correlations

Perspectives on Terrorism

Table A-4. Pre-Treatment Comparison of Treatment and Control Groups by Indicator 1970-2014

Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism


Perspectives on Terrorism

Endnotes
            International Security 
              
Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 

International Studies Review

.” Foreign Policy Analysis          
 International Studies Quarterly
International
Security


Perspectives on Politics

Journal of Peace Research
Journal of Politics
International Security
International
Security 
Comparative Political Studies
  
Foreign Policy AnalysisThe Logic of Violence in Civil War.

International SecurityHow Terrorist Groups
End: Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida.
Dialog-IO  
American Political Science Review
Twisting Arms and Sending Messages
 American Journal of Political Science

The Oxford
Handbook of Terrorism



Terrorism and Political Violence   
Journal of Peace Research
    How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist
Campaigns.            
 Politics & Society

World Politics





Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
  The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism 
 

            


Terrorism and Civil WarDo Terrorists Win
   
Twisting Arms and Sending MessagesTerrorism in the Context of Civil
War.
Do Terrorists WinTwisting Arms and Sending Messages.
             The Yale
Review of International Studies    
            





             
           




International InteractionsTwisting Arms and
Sending Messages.
    

Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida;Rebel Rulers.

Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida.


;;



             
            
International Interactions 
  



Perspectives on Terrorism


   
Terrorism and Political Violence
The Strategies of TerrorismTerrorism and Civil War.

        

   
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding
International
Studies QuarterlyThe Strategies of TerrorismStopping the
Killing during the Peace International
Security             
Resilient Cities: Countering Violent Extremism at Local Level

Journal of Peace Research
Routledge
Handbook of South Asian Criminology


European Journal of International Relations

Crime and Justice
Áine  

Journal of Interpersonal Violence
             
Small Wars & Insurgencies

 
Third World Thematics: A
TWQ Journal
Trauma Exposure and Domestic Violence.
War and Postwar Violence;Understanding the Relation between War Economies
and Post-War Crime.
International
Security

Civil Wars
European Journal of International Relations

             
Small Wars & Insurgencies

Shifting Targets


Vol. XVIII, Issue 1 - March 2024
Perspectives on Terrorism
The Geo-Temporal Evolution of Violence
Terrorism and Civil War;Twisting Arms and Sending Messages; Terrorism in the
Context of Civil War.

Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents’ Choices After Civil War. 


International Security

Journal of Peace Research
            
           
Perspectives on Politics

American Political Science Review       Protection through Presence

Stopping the Killing during the “Peace;

              
The Oxford Handbook
of Governance and Limited Statehood, 
Civil Wars

   Rebel Governance,       

Peacebuilding: Selling the Peace?Networks of Rebellion.


          



      Journal of Peace Research     


Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's
Companion
Terrorism and Civil War;Is Terrorism Really a Weapon of the Weak?
Is Terrorism Really a Weapon of the Weak?



 
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior

Perspectives on Terrorism




  



             
Political Analysis
Perspectives on Terrorism
Established in 2007, Perspectives on Terrorism (PT) is a quarterly, peer-
reviewed, and open-access academic journal. PT is a publication of the
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), in partnership with the
Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University, and the
Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at
the University of St Andrews.
Copyright and Licensing
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The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and practitioners to state-of-the-art approaches, methods, and issues in studying this vital phenomenon. This Handbook attempts to give structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency to treat terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. And the volume showcases the theoretical insights that various fields—including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology—have provided. In doing so, the volume seeks to engage in honest reflection about the analytical advancements and challenges that remain since the evolution of the field in the early 1970s.
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The threat of continued violence is a primary concern in post-conflict societies. This article contributes to the literature on post-conflict violence by analyzing a specific phenomenon that has characterized Colombia since the signing of the 2016 peace agreement: the assassination of social leaders. Building on explanations that emphasize state weakness, illicit economies, and the role of illegal armed actors, we argue that the assassination of social leaders also responds to efforts by local elites to sustain local competitive authoritarian orders in the face of bottom-up threats to their power by sociopolitical actors mobilized around the local implementation of the peace agreement. Using a cross-sectional dataset of Colombian municipalities, we find that assassinations of social leaders are more likely and more frequent in municipalities with intermediate levels of party fragmentation and low levels of voter turnout—that is, in municipalities with restricted electoral competition. Furthermore, a higher share of votes for leftist parties, which signals the presence of challengers to local elites, correlates with a higher probability and a higher number of assassinations. Overall, this article suggests that the nature of local political orders constitutes a key dimension shaping the micro-dynamics of violence and repression in post-conflict contexts. La amenaza de la continuación de la violencia es una de las principales preocupaciones en las sociedades en posconflicto. Este artículo contribuye a la literatura sobre la violencia en el posconflicto analizando un fenómeno específico que ha caracterizado a Colombia desde la firma del acuerdo de paz de 2016: el asesinato de líderes sociales. Partiendo de las explicaciones que enfatizan la debilidad del Estado, las economías ilícitas y el papel de los actores armados ilegales, argumentamos que el asesinato de líderes sociales también responde a los esfuerzos de las élites locales para sostener los órdenes autoritarios competitivos locales frente a las amenazas a su poder por parte de los actores sociopolíticos movilizados en torno a la implementación local del acuerdo de paz. Utilizando un conjunto de datos de municipios colombianos, observamos que los asesinatos de líderes sociales son más probables y más frecuentes en municipios con niveles intermedios de fragmentación partidista y bajos niveles de participación electoral, es decir, en municipios con competencia electoral restringida. Además, se correlaciona una mayor proporción de votos a los partidos de izquierda, un indicador de la presencia de contendientes a las élites locales, con una mayor probabilidad de que ocurran asesinatos, así como un mayor número de casos. Como conclusión, este artículo sugiere que la naturaleza de los órdenes políticos locales constituye una dimensión clave que determina las microdinámicas de la violencia y la represión en contextos de posconflicto. Le risque de la poursuite des violences est une préoccupation majeure dans les sociétés post-conflit. Cet article contribue à la littérature sur la violence post-conflit en analysant un phénoméne spécifique qui caractérise la Colombie depuis la signature de l'accord de paix de 2016 : l'assassinat de leaders sociaux. En s'appuyant sur des explications qui mettent l'accent sur la faiblesse de l'État, les économies illicites et le rôle des acteurs armés illégaux, nous soutenons que l'assassinat des leaders sociaux répond également aux efforts des élites locales pour maintenir des ordres autoritaires compétitifs locaux face aux menaces à leur pouvoir de la part des acteurs sociopolitiques mobilisés autour de la mise en œuvre locale de l'accord de paix. En utilisant des données provenant de municipalités colombiennes, nous constatons que les assassinats de leaders sociaux sont plus probables et plus fréquents dans les municipalités où la concurrence électorale est limitée. En outre, une part plus importante de votes pour les partis de gauche, un indicateur de la présence de concurrents (challengers) aux élites locales, est corrélée à une plus grande probabilité d'assassinats, ainsi qu'à un nombre plus élevé de cas. En conclusion, cet article suggére que la nature des ordres politiques locaux constitue une dimension clé déterminant la micro-dynamique de la violence et de la répression dans les contextes post-conflit.
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Violence in post-conflict settings is often attributed to a post-war boom in organized crime, facilitated by the demobilization of armed groups and the persisting weakness of the state. The article argues that this is only one pathway of post-conflict violence. A second causal pathway emerges from the challenges that peace processes can constitute for entrenched local political orders. By fostering political inclusion, the implementation of peace agreements may threaten subnational political elites that have used the context of armed conflict to ally with armed non-state actors. Violence is then used as a means to preserve such de facto authoritarian local orders. We start from the assumption that these two explanations are not exclusive or competing, but grasp different causal processes that may well both be at work behind the assassination of social leaders (líderes sociales) in Colombia since the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla. We argue that this specific type of targeted violence can, in fact, be attributed to different, locally specific configurations that resemble the two pathways. The article combines fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis with the case studies of the municipalities of Sardinata and Suárez to empirically establish and illustrate the two pathways.
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Violence after civil war is a challenge to sustainable peace. Many armed conflicts today are recurrences of previous wars and much of the literature on violence after war explains why armed groups return to the battlefield. But even if peace prevails, many other types of violence take place in postwar environments. This postwar violence is likewise subject to a growing multidisciplinary literature. Using citation network analysis, we show that research on war recurrence and postwar violence has developed in relative isolation from each other—although these phenomena are interrelated. This compartmentalization leads us to overlook important similarities and differences in the drivers of different forms of violence after war. We demonstrate this by reviewing the literature in both of these closely related fields. While war recurrence and postwar violence share a set of common risk factors, some factors can have opposite effects on the two outcomes. Because these insights only emerge when systematically comparing the two strands of literature, we propose a novel framework for the study of violence after wars that aims at overcoming the compartmentalization of research within these two fields. The framework serves both as a conceptual lens and an analytical tool to categorize and compare different forms of violence after war. We then outline how the framework aids scholars in pursuing an integrated research agenda, with concrete suggestions for research questions that should be studied to expand our understanding of violence after wars.
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Existing works on diffusion fail to account for the incapacitating effects conflict events may have on the operational capability of the combatant sides and how these effects may determine the evolution of a conflict. I hypothesize that it is those events with losses on the state side that are likely to be associated with geo-temporal spillovers, whereas events with insurgency losses are less likely to be associated with future mayhem in their vicinity. To test my arguments, I first introduce a new, comprehensive and detailed event dataset on the long-running civil conflict in Turkey. The Turkish State–PKK Conflict Event Database (TPCONED) includes the exact date and county-level location for the fatal events of the armed conflict between the Turkish state and the rebel organization PKK since its very beginning in 1984 with detailed information on combatant casualties. I then employ a split population bi-probit model which allows me to comprehensively depict the geotemporal evolution of the conflict by acknowledging, estimating and accounting for the variation in the underlying conflict proneness across locations as a latent variable that shapes the diffusion of events. The results of the statistical analyses offer support for my hypotheses and reveal that how events evolve over space and time is conditioned by the damages suffered by the combatant sides. I demonstrate the robustness of these results on a matched sample I obtain by employing the Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) on the data.
Article
This article reports on trends in organized violence, building on new data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP). In 2022, fatalities from organized violence increased by a staggering 97%, compared to the previous year, from 120,000 in 2021 to 237,000 in 2022, making 2022 the deadliest year since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The increase was driven by two, particularly deadly, state-based armed conflicts: the Russia–Ukraine war, and the war in Ethiopia against TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front). With more than 81,500 and 101,000 fatalities respectively, these are the two most deadly state-based conflict-years recorded in the post-1989 period. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the first large-scale interstate war in 20 years, and the first interstate armed conflict since World War II where a major power in the international system seeks both territorial gains for itself and the subjugation of another state through regime change. We have witnessed an emerging trend of increased conflict between states in the last decade, including cases where major powers support opposite sides in internationalized intrastate conflict. UCDP recorded 55 active state-based armed conflicts in 2022, an increase of one compared to the previous year. Eight of these conflicts reached the level of war. While the fatalities caused by non-state conflict decreased somewhat when compared to 2021, the number of non-state conflicts, as well as both the number of civilians killed in one-sided violence and the number of actors carrying out such violence, increased in 2022.
Article
That terrorism is a “weapon of the weak” is such deeply held conventional wisdom it has become almost a cliché. “Weak” means many different things in the literature, however, and little rigorous empirical research has tested the contention that weaker groups, however conceived, are more likely to employ terrorism. This article explores prominent weapon of the weak arguments to develop testable hypotheses about group strength and the prevalence of terrorism. Using measures of deliberately indiscriminate attacks on civilians by rebel groups in civil conflicts, as well as multiple measures of rebel strength, it examines systematically whether weaker groups are more likely to employ terrorism. I find surprisingly little empirical support for the conventional wisdom. There is no clear or consistent evidence that deliberately indiscriminate terrorism is a weapon of the weak rather than the strong.
Article
How do policing institutions affect the prospects for peace in post-conflict settings? We present a principal-agent theoretical framework to explain how the institutional design of policing affects the recurrence of civil conflict. We argue that the fragmentation of police forces can reignite conflict dynamics by impeding coordinated action, undermining information sharing, and enabling agents to pursue their own interests. We test these expectations with the Police Force Organization Dataset (PFOD) on police forces in over 100 developing states. Our empirical analyses show that increasing the number of distinct police forces is systematically associated with an increased risk of conflict recurrence in post-conflict states. We also find that a larger number of police forces is associated with more abuse against civilian populations in post-conflict states, setting the stage for new grievances that may undermine peace.
Article
The phenomenon of governance by insurgents characterises many contexts of civil war and influences political, security, social, and economic dynamics in the original conflict zone and beyond. Therefore, understanding how different insurgents govern seems of crucial importance. However, in the existing literature no typology has been advanced that captures the multiple dimensions of rebel governance and allows to develop detailed and comparable assessments of the different patterns of rule implemented by different rebels. Considering this gap a limit to the study of insurgent governance, the present paper aims to propose a multi-dimensional typology for investigating how rebels govern.