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Geographic determinants of indiscriminate violence in civil wars

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  • Sebastian Schutte

Abstract

What determines the type of violence used by military actors in civil wars? Drawing on Kalyvas’s “information problem†and Boulding’s “loss of strength gradient†, this paper proposes a simple model of how the violence becomes more indiscriminate as a function of distance from the actors’ power centers. The proposed mechanism is a growing inability of the actors to distinguish between collaborators of the adversary and innocent bystanders. Tested on the conflict event level for 11 cases of insurgency, the results indicate that a simple distance-decay mechanism can explain the occurrence of indiscriminate violence to a large extent.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Schutte, 2017. "Geographic determinants of indiscriminate violence in civil wars," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(4), pages 380-405, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:34:y:2017:i:4:p:380-405
    DOI: 10.1177/0738894215593690
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    References listed on IDEAS

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