Warfare in Civil Wars Flashcards
What are the three types of warfare that characterise civil wars?
- Conventional warfare
- Irregular warfare
- Symmetric non-conventional warfare
What are the 3 processes which constitute the origins of the types of warfare?
- Failed military coups or secessions in federal states = conventional warfare civil wars
- Peripheral/rural insurgencies = irregular warfare civil wars
- State collapse = symmetric non-conventional warfare civil wars
What are the three theoretical accounts of violence?
- Sociological thesis connecting violence to deep prewar divisions
- Hobbesian thesis imputes causal force to the collapse of order and anarchy
- Military thesis vulnerability as the causal mechanism behind mass civilian victimisation
What do most social scientists study in regards to civil wars?
Social/political factors that help cause and end civil wars
Not the types of warfare used
What effect does warfare have on politics?
Different from peacetime politics in that there are more constraints, less consent, higher stakes (fighting for a party as opposed to just voting for it) and you have to choose a side
What is a Mao quote about war and politics?
“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed”
What is an essential distinction that must be made?
Between types of war and types of warfare
How can wars be classified?
By the primary actors involved e.g. international or domestic
Their goals e.g. offensive or defensive
What form of warfare is the most common amongst civil wars?
Irregular - exception of the conventional warfare of the Spain civil war
What form of warfare is the most common amongst interstate wars?
Conventional warfare
What is conventional warfare?
Face-to-face confrontations between regular armies across clear frontlines (usually a balance of power between the 2 sides)
Battles occur as a result of the mutual consent of both sides
What is irregular warfare?
Requires a choice by the strategically weaker side to refuse to match to the stronger sides expectations (use harassment and surprise)
What does irregular warfare often lead to?
Wars of attrition (insurgents hoping to win by not loosing while imposing unbearable costs on their opponent)
What is irregular warfare a manifestation of?
Military asymmetry in terms of actors power and their willingness to fight on the same plane
How can an irregular war be turned into a conventional one?
High levels of external support or intervention in favour of the rebel side
How do irregular civil wars emerge?
Slowly from a states periphery - slow process of state building by an insurgent organisation organisation
What is a symmetric non-conventional war?
Fought on both sides by irregular armies following a process of state collapse that reflects the weakness and eventual implosion of the incumbent actor
What are the details of a symmetric non-conventional war?
Disintegration of state army into rival militias which equip themselves by plundering the arsenal of the disbanded army
Lack of set battles but frontlines are present e.g. roadblocks and checkpoints
What is perplexing about civil wars?
The variation in intensity of violence e.g. ranging from the incumbents, insurgents or both committing the worst atrocities
Name a civil war in which a restraint in violence has been shown?
Northern Irish troubles - British authorities have committed human rights abused but haven’t systematically tortured the Irish in the same way as South African Blacks
IRA hoped to avoid sectarian violence e.g. a policeman was a legitimate target but not his protestant family
How can cross-national variation in the intensity of violence be explained?
Social, economic and political factors e.g. profile of political actors, the extent of militarisation and the organisational structure
Why is the relationship between warfare and violence not a trivial one?
Since most of the victims of civil wars are innocent civilians
Why were their so many civilian death in the outset of the Spanish Civil War?
Period of uncertainty over the presence of real or suspected ‘fifth columnists’ behind ones back (subverting the logic of frontlines) - once the frontline was established fatality rates declined
What can be implied from the civilian deaths at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War?
Violence used to eliminate known opponents and terrorise potential sympathisers to secure the armies rear and ensure a conventional war could be fought
What was the predominant form of violence in the convention Nigerian civil war of 1967-70?
Massacres at the start but nit during the war - used as justification
Most civilian death caused by the Nigerian army’s blockade (indirect killing)
What do the Spanish and Nigerian cases show about conventional wars?
After crossing a threshold violence in conventional civil wars mirrors that of modern interstate wars in which most deaths are of the military and civilian death are indirect (collateral)
Conventional warfare must be preceded by mass violence to kill any suspected traitors
What is an example of an irregular civil war in which violence against civilians was practised by both sides?
Algerian war of independence (1954-62) - FLN massacred French settlers and Algerian peasant who refused to join to create environment of fear to hurry recruitment
French committed collective punishment and mass population displacement
What can we learn form the Algerian example?
Snapshot of 2 functions of violence:
- To signal capability and induce mobilisation and attention
- To deter civilians from collaborating with the enemy through terrorism (shape behaviour)
What distinguishes irregular war from conventional?
Willingness of one actor to be discriminating e.g. separating those supporting their rival from those who aren’t as in Algeria with the FLN
What is a key feature of the symmetrical non-conventional civil wars of Lebanon and Liberia?
Violence was along ethnic lines e.g. in Lebanon there were visible boundaries separating sectarian enclaves controlled by various militias
Violence was also indiscriminate e/g/ massacre of 500 civilians in Liberia
What are armies more likely to be if they have access to informational resources?
More discriminating in their victim choices - suggest relationship between information and violence
Who is the main theorist behind the sociological thesis and what is his main argument?
Carl Schmitt - Theory of the partisan: the limited hostility of conventional war turned into ‘real hostility’ of partisan warfare due to hostile ideologies
What are the drawbacks of Schmitt’s ‘theory of the partisan’?
Generalises form a specific historical period and fails to recognise irregular war’s broader history
Can’t explain violence of civil wars not caused by ideology
What is a more detailed description of the Hobbesian thesis?
As irregular war lacks formal structures it causes a breakdown in military discipline and turns war into a cover for looting and banditry
What is the obvious drawback of the Hobbesian thesis?
Fails to account for the violence of conventional wars as it believes the more irregular the army the higher the violence
What is an example of mass violence by an organised force >
Research has found that during the English civil war atrocities were more common during times of and in areas where professional armies operated
What is a more detailed description of the military thesis?
The absence of frontlines and the presence of the enemy behind ones back causes uncertainty and facilitates trigger happy reactions
What is a drawback of the military thesis?
It privileges expressive motivations for violence - there are many motivations that constrain an individuals emotional expression
What is the rationalist variant of vulnerability?
When in an environment where it is impossible to distinguish between civilians and enemies it pays to err on the side of violence
What does it mean that each thesis describes the violence of each form of civil war?
They’re biased
