Authors
Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, Katherine Sawyer
Publication date
2019/9
Journal
Journal of Peace Research
Volume
56
Issue
5
Pages
619-634
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Description
The international community often calls for negotiations in civil wars. Yet, we have limited understanding of when and why specific rebels enter into negotiations. The emergence of a new leader in a rebel group can provide an opportunity for the state seeking to end war, but this is conditional on how leaders take power. Rebel leaders who come to power through a local selection process (such as an election) provide information to the state about the likely cohesion of the rebel group. This affects state perceptions of the viability of a rebel group as a bargaining partner in civil war negotiations. Using original data on rebel leaders in civil wars, we show that new leaders coming to power through a local selection process are more likely to get to the negotiating table than leaders coming to power in other ways. We find that the election of a rebel group leader has a particularly strong and positive effect on the chance of …
Total citations
20192020202120222023202478811158
Scholar articles
KG Cunningham, K Sawyer - Journal of Peace Research, 2019