The commander's dilemma

Creating and controlling armed group violence

Bibliographic Data

ID3915925
AuthorsAmelia Hoover Green (0000-0002-9003-8576, Drexel University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume53
Issue5
Pages619-632
Publication date2016-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343316653645
OpenAlexW2516288347
LanguageEN
Citations received113
References cited71

This article proposes a framework for understanding variation in armed groups' abilities to control wartime violence, including violence against civilians. I argue that patterns (both levels and forms) of violence are shaped by armed group leaders' attempts to meet two conflicting imperatives. To succeed, commanders must build a fighting force capable of swift, unhesitating violence; they must also maintain some control over the level, form(s), and targeting of violence. I refer to this situation as the Commander's Dilemma. Drawing on literatures from psychology and sociology, I argue that effective behavioral control cannot be achieved via extrinsic incentives (i.e. pecuniary or non-pecuniary rewards and punishments) alone. Rather, effective control of combatant violence depends upon armed group institutions intended to align combatants' preferences with those of commanders. I therefore focus analytically on political education, the armed group institution most likely to operate in this way. In particular, I hypothesize that armed groups with strong and consistent institutions for political education should display, on average, narrower repertoires of violence than those without. This argument finds preliminary support in a cross-national analysis of reported rape by rebel forces, as well as a qualitative investigation of armed groups during civil war in El Salvador. More broadly, this approach suggests that the creation of restraint is at least as important to our understandings of wartime violence as the production of violence

Argument (complex analysis) · Combatant · Computer security · Control (management) · Criminology · Dilemma · Economics · Epistemology · Incentive · Institution · Management · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Computer Science · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Medicine · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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