Coercion and collusion: Change in rebel group treatment of civilians

Abstract

This dissertation explains why some rebel groups act in a highly coercive fashion toward local populations, only to shift to increasingly contractual behavior, and why other groups that share similar circumstances evolve in the opposite direction. Drawing upon fieldwork in Sudan, Iraq, Turkey, and Colombia, this study examines three rebel groups in the context of the type of resources they extract, their intensity of need, and the presence of rivals. Using multiple qualitative methods such as process-tracing and Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study finds that the ability or inability to monopolize resource extraction accounts for the change in rebel group behavior toward local populations.