Arms for education? External support and rebel social services
Author | Patricia L Sullivan,Reyko Huang |
DOI | 10.1177/0022343320940749 |
Published date | 01 July 2021 |
Date | 01 July 2021 |
Arms for education? External support
and rebel social services
Reyko Huang
Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University
Patricia L Sullivan
Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstract
How does foreign support for rebel groups affect rebel governance of civilians during armed conflict? Existing studies
primarily examine the local and domestic politics of rebel rule, leaving the effects of foreign intervention on rebel
governance underexplored. Focusing on rebel provision of social servic es, this study considers two competing
arguments. The first suggests that foreign sponsorship reduces rebels’ need to rely on local civilians for resources
and hence decreases rebels’ incentives to provide services. The second anticipates that by augmenting rebels’ resources
and military capabilities, foreign support increases their capacity to provide welfare services. These competing logics
suggest that different types of foreign support have divergent effects on rebel social service provision. The article tests
this theory using cross-sectional time-series data on external support for rebel groups and rebel governance for the
post-1945 period. It finds that rebel groups that receive external funding, weapons or training are significantly more
likely to provide education and health services to civilians. In contrast, direct military intervention to assist insurgent
forces has no effect on rebel service provision. This article is among the first to systematically study the impact of
external support and third-party intervention on rebel social service provision during civil war and holds implications
for civilian welfare in contested territories.
Keywords
civil war, military intervention, rebel governance, rebel support, third-party intervention
How does foreign support for rebel groups during
civil war affect rebels’ relations with local civilians?
A growing body of work examines the effects of for-
eign intervention on conflict duration, intensity, and
outcomes,aswellasoncombatants’useofviolence
against civilians (e.g. Balch-Lindsay, Enterline & Joyce,
2008; Cunningham, 2010; Salehyan, Gleditsch &
Cunningham, 2011; Sullivan & Karreth, 2015;
Sawyer,Cunningham&Reed,2017;Fortna,Lotito
&Rubin,2018).However,thewaysinwhichforeign
intervention affects rebel groups’ local organization,
civilian administration, and governance has received
little scholarly attention. If external aid to the rebels
can increase their fighting capacity, how might it alter
their behavior as political actors who must engage
with civilians in their milieu?
The literature on rebel governance largely focuses on
the domestic politics of rebel rule and has not system-
atically examined how external sponsorship affects rebel
incentives to govern. If rebel groups seek formal state
power and control over citizens and often have strong
incentives to serve as ‘governors’ (Mampilly, 2011;
Arjona, 2016), how does the influx of foreign weapons
or troops alter their political calculus? Scholarship on
foreign interventions in civil wars and work on rebel
governance have largely developed in parallel; we have
little understanding of how external support shapes rebel
rule across conflicts.
Corresponding author:
tsulli@email.unc.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2021, Vol. 58(4) 794–808
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343320940749
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