Rivalry and RevengeWhat explains violence against civilians in civil wars? Why do groups kill civilians in areas where they have full military control and their rivals have no military presence? This innovative book connects pre-war politics to patterns of violence during civil war. It argues that both local political rivalry and local revenge account for violence against civilians. Armed groups perpetrate direct violence jointly with local civilians, who collaborate when violence can help them gain or consolidate local political control. As civil war continues, revenge motives also come into play, leading to spirals of violence at a local level. In an important contribution to the study of the Spanish Civil War, Balcells combines statistical analyses with ethnographic and qualitative research to provide new insights to scholars and academic researchers with an interest in civil war, politics and conflict processes. Rivalry and Revenge is theoretically and empirically rich, and it offers a theory and method generalizable to a wide set of cases. |
Contents
A Theory of Violence Against Civilians | 19 |
History of the Spanish Civil War 19361939 | 49 |
Executions and Massacres During the Spanish Civil War | 87 |
Bombardments During the Spanish Civil War | 130 |
The Conflict in Côte dIvoire 20022011 | 151 |
Additional Evidence and MacroLevel Implications | 171 |
Other editions - View all
Rivalry and Revenge: The Politics of Violence during Civil War Laia Balcells No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
1936 elections Abidjan analyses anarchist Aragon areas argue armed groups army Balcells Barcelona battlefield blocs bombings Casanova Catalan Chapter civilian victimization cleavage CNT Affiliation collaboration conflict conventional civil wars Côte d'Ivoire coup dataset direct violence electoral enemy ethnic example explaining violence Extremadura factors Falange Francoist frontlines Gbagbo Human Rights Watch ideological indirect individuals International Crisis Group Ivorian Kalyvas killed Ledesma leftist leftist violence levels of violence Lleida locality locations Malaga military control militiamen militias motives municipalities Nationalist number of executions Ouattara percent period perpetration of violence political elites political mobilization political parties Population prewar political province Puigcerdà rearguard territories rebels region regressions relevant Republican Right right-wing rightist Sabaté and Villarroya significant social Solé i Sabaté Spain Spanish Civil Spanish Civil War spatial strategic Support Left targeted Tarragona theoretical theory tion total number UGT Affiliation variable violence against civilians violence perpetrated vote zone