Civilian Victimization and Forced Recruitment 1

Simon Hug2  , Livia I. Schubiger3  
 
Paper prepared for presentation at the ISA Annual Convention (Atlanta, March 16-19, 2016)

First version: August 2015, this version: Jul 26, 2015

Abstract

Recent theoretical work on violence against civilians and child soldiering assumes that a rebel leader (or government) simply faces some incentive structures in the local civilian population as well as some environmental constraints (including those imposed by adversaries), from which more or less technological benefits from specific strategies of violence and recruitment result. Empirical work, however, suggests that the strategies adopted by government and rebel leaders are dynamic and interdependent, and that the strategies of violence pursued by one group influence the recruitment practices adopted by the other. Based on this observation we propose a game-theoretical model taking into account the interactions between a rebel group leader and government (and/or possibly another armed group leader) as they consider their relationship with the civilian population. The model highlights the importance of these interactions and as a consequence sheds new light on the observed interdependencies in forced recruitment among and violence against civilians.

Footnotes:

1 F i n a n c i a l s u p p o r t b y t h e S w i s s N e t w o r k f o r I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t u d i e s i s g r a t e f u l l y a c k n o w l e d g e d .
2     D  ' e p a r t e m e n t d e s c i e n c e p o l i t i q u e e t r e l a t i o n s i n t e r n a t i o n a l e s , U n i v e r s i t  ' e d e G e n  ` e v e , 4 0 B d d u P o n t d ' A r v e , 1 2 1 1 G e n  ` e v e 4 ; S w i t z e r l a n d , p h o n e + 4 1 2 2 3 7 9 8 3 7 8 , e m a i l : s i m o n . h u g @ u n i g e . c h .
3     C e n t e r f o r C o m p a r a t i v e a n d I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t u d i e s ( C I S ) , I n s t i t u t e o f P o l i t i c a l S c i e n c e , U n i v e r s i t y o f Z u r i c h , A f f o l t e r n s t r a s s e 5 6 , 8 0 5 0 Z u r i c h , S w i t z e r l a n d ; e m a i l : s c h u b i g e r @ p w . u z h . c h

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On 26 Jul 2015, 19:23.