Project Description
Ethno-territorial civil wars pit a state representing one or more dominant ethnic groups against elements of another ethnic group. Each side claims disputed territory as all or part of its homeland. There have been over 50 such wars since 1945. The research project develops quantitative measures of state and rebel methods (or strategies) of targeting civilians. Three measures are being developed for both state and rebel strategies: six-level scales of strategies for killing of enemy-group civilians; four-level scales of strategies of forced expulsion of enemy-group civilians from disputed territories; and three-level scales of strategies of leadership-sponsored in-migration of own-group civilians into disputed territories. It is also specified which side initiates the given strategies. Another measure is being developed only for dominant rebel group leaderships: a binary scale for whether rebel leaderships use force to attempt to monopolize political representation of the ethnic group they claim to represent. (Such measures already exist for the state side.) Methodologies: Each measure can be used to construct a quantitative dependent variable. For each such dependent variable, quasi-experimental statistical methods will be used to estimate the impact of a list of theoretically indicated, quantitative independent variables.
Tasks and Responsibilites
Student tasks and responsibilities: The student will learn the definitions for the coding of methods of civilian targeting; will gather information on individual conflicts from secondary sources; and will code measures for individual conflicts based upon the information gathered.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.