Warfare in Civil Wars

Question 1

What are the three types of warfare that characterise civil wars?

Answer 1

1. Conventional warfare
2. Irregular warfare
3. Symmetric non-conventional warfare

Question 2

What are the 3 processes which constitute the origins of the types of warfare?

Answer 2

1. Failed military coups or secessions in federal states = conventional warfare civil wars
2. Peripheral/rural insurgencies = irregular warfare civil wars
3. State collapse = symmetric non-conventional warfare civil wars

Question 3

What are the three theoretical accounts of violence?

Answer 3

1. Sociological thesis connecting violence to deep prewar divisions
2. Hobbesian thesis imputes causal force to the collapse of order and anarchy
3. Military thesis vulnerability as the causal mechanism behind mass civilian victimisation

Question 4

What do most social scientists study in regards to civil wars?

Answer 4

Social/political factors that help cause and end civil wars

Not the types of warfare used

Question 5

What effect does warfare have on politics?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What is a Mao quote about war and politics?

Answer 6

“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed”

Question 7

What is an essential distinction that must be made?

Answer 7

Between types of war and types of warfare

Question 8

How can wars be classified?

Answer 8

By the primary actors involved e.g. international or domestic
Their goals e.g. offensive or defensive

Question 9

What form of warfare is the most common amongst civil wars?

Answer 9

Irregular - exception of the conventional warfare of the Spain civil war

Question 10

What form of warfare is the most common amongst interstate wars?

Answer 10

Conventional warfare

Question 11

What is conventional warfare?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is irregular warfare?

Answer 12

Requires a choice by the strategically weaker side to refuse to match to the stronger sides expectations (use harassment and surprise)

Question 13

What does irregular warfare often lead to?

Answer 13

Wars of attrition (insurgents hoping to win by not loosing while imposing unbearable costs on their opponent)

Question 14

What is irregular warfare a manifestation of?

Answer 14

Military asymmetry in terms of actors power and their willingness to fight on the same plane

Question 15

How can an irregular war be turned into a conventional one?

Answer 15

High levels of external support or intervention in favour of the rebel side

Question 16

How do irregular civil wars emerge?

Answer 16

Slowly from a states periphery - slow process of state building by an insurgent organisation organisation

Question 17

What is a symmetric non-conventional war?

Answer 17

Fought on both sides by irregular armies following a process of state collapse that reflects the weakness and eventual implosion of the incumbent actor

Question 18

What are the details of a symmetric non-conventional war?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is perplexing about civil wars?

Answer 19

The variation in intensity of violence e.g. ranging from the incumbents, insurgents or both committing the worst atrocities

Question 20

Name a civil war in which a restraint in violence has been shown?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

How can cross-national variation in the intensity of violence be explained?

Answer 21

Social, economic and political factors e.g. profile of political actors, the extent of militarisation and the organisational structure

Question 22

Why is the relationship between warfare and violence not a trivial one?

Answer 22

Since most of the victims of civil wars are innocent civilians

Question 23

Why were their so many civilian death in the outset of the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What can be implied from the civilian deaths at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 24

Violence used to eliminate known opponents and terrorise potential sympathisers to secure the armies rear and ensure a conventional war could be fought

Question 25

What was the predominant form of violence in the convention Nigerian civil war of 1967-70?

Answer 25

Massacres at the start but nit during the war - used as justification
Most civilian death caused by the Nigerian army’s blockade (indirect killing)

Question 26

What do the Spanish and Nigerian cases show about conventional wars?

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is an example of an irregular civil war in which violence against civilians was practised by both sides?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What can we learn form the Algerian example?

Answer 28

Snapshot of 2 functions of violence:

1. To signal capability and induce mobilisation and attention
2. To deter civilians from collaborating with the enemy through terrorism (shape behaviour)

Question 29

What distinguishes irregular war from conventional?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What is a key feature of the symmetrical non-conventional civil wars of Lebanon and Liberia?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

What are armies more likely to be if they have access to informational resources?

Answer 31

More discriminating in their victim choices - suggest relationship between information and violence

Question 32

Who is the main theorist behind the sociological thesis and what is his main argument?

Answer 32

Carl Schmitt - Theory of the partisan: the limited hostility of conventional war turned into ‘real hostility’ of partisan warfare due to hostile ideologies

Question 33

What are the drawbacks of Schmitt’s ‘theory of the partisan’?

Answer 33

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

Question 34

What is a more detailed description of the Hobbesian thesis?

Answer 34

As irregular war lacks formal structures it causes a breakdown in military discipline and turns war into a cover for looting and banditry

Question 35

What is the obvious drawback of the Hobbesian thesis?

Answer 35

Fails to account for the violence of conventional wars as it believes the more irregular the army the higher the violence

Question 36

What is an example of mass violence by an organised force >

Answer 36

Research has found that during the English civil war atrocities were more common during times of and in areas where professional armies operated

Question 37

What is a more detailed description of the military thesis?

Answer 37

The absence of frontlines and the presence of the enemy behind ones back causes uncertainty and facilitates trigger happy reactions

Question 38

What is a drawback of the military thesis?

Answer 38

It privileges expressive motivations for violence - there are many motivations that constrain an individuals emotional expression

Question 39

What is the rationalist variant of vulnerability?

Answer 39

When in an environment where it is impossible to distinguish between civilians and enemies it pays to err on the side of violence

Question 40

What does it mean that each thesis describes the violence of each form of civil war?

Answer 40

They’re biased