Impact of Rebel Group Ideology on Wartime Sexual Violence

Abstract

Does rebel group ideology influence variation in wartime sexual violence? While existing studies have explored country-level and conflict-specific factors to explain wartime sexual violence, it is important to recognize that rebels vary in their characteristics and sexual violence behavior. Specifically, rebel groups differ in their values regarding gender equality. I argue that the ideological preferences held by rebels and their foreign supporters can influence sexual violence during armed conflict. Particularly, I make the claim that rebels influenced by a leftist ideology are less likely to commit wartime sexual violence, whereas religious groups, Islamist and non-Islamist, are more likely to perpetrate such violence. Using a statistical analysis to explore the effects of ideology of rebel groups on sexual violence during the period of 1989–2008, I find that leftist rebels commit lower levels of wartime sexual violence. Furthermore, findings reveal that leftist organizations that receive support from leftist third parties are less likely to perpetrate sexual violence. Religious rebels who receive support from conservative supporters, on the other hand, are more likely to commit sexual violence.

Ideology and the Implicit Authorization of Violence as Policy: The Myanmar Military’s Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against the Rohingya

“…Nuestra teoría se basa en trabajos recientes que han explorado cómo la ideología de una organización, en mayor o menor medida, prescribe y legitima su patrón de violencia contra civiles, en particular la violencia sexual. En el caso de la victimización de civiles por parte de organizaciones no estatales, muchas teorías -incluidas las centradas en la dotación de recursos, el oportunismo en tiempos de guerra, la cultura patriarcal, el reclutamiento forzado y la masculinidad militarizada-predicen que la ideología de grupo tiene poco efecto (Sarwari, 2020). Sin embargo, los académicos enfatizan cada vez más que la ideología puede ser un determinante importante de la presencia o ausencia de violencia sexual en tiempos de guerra.…”

Cyclones and violence against civilians: Evidence from the Cabo Delgado insurgency

“…Some groups have ideologies that are more likely to produce violence. For instance, Sarwari (2021) shows that religious insurgents are much more likely to encourage sexual violence as a means of subjugation, whereas Marxist-Leninist groups are less likely to do so. Sanı´n and Wood (2014) argue that ideology conditions violence as a means of socialization or in reducing normative commitments to restrain from using violence.…”

“…Importantly, in leveraging past research on ideology, bargaining, and natural resources (e.g., Wood, 2014; Wood & Kathman, 2014) alongside qualitative evidence from Cabo Delgado, we can suggest explanations for why the insurgents in Cabo Delgado behave in a seemingly self-defeating way and—broadly— when environmental shocks can increase civilian risk. In our theoretical section, we outline several potential explanations for this behavior, building on past research on social (dis)embeddeness (Mampilly & Stewart, 2021; Moore, 2019), ideological extremism (Sarwari, 2021; Thaler, 2012), and signaling (Farrell, 2020). Our qualitative assessment provides some evidence in support of these explanations within Cabo Delgado’s insurgency.…”

Rebel group legitimacy, ideology and durable peace

“…A question arises about how to define ideology in the context of this study on DP. One approach is to rely on categories that depict the groups’ political doctrines, such as left-wing, right-wing, anti-government, ethnonationalist, Islamist and/or other religious types (Polo and Gleditsch, 2016; Wood and Thomas, 2017; Sarwari, 2021; Asal et al , 2021). These categories are useful for capturing political incompatibility with the incumbent government’s official policies.…”