Persuasion, Coercion, and Force: How Rebel Groups Recruit
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Soules, Michael
- Graduate Program:
- Political Science
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- January 13, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Douglas Lemke, Major Field Member
James Piazza, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Bumba Mukherjee, Major Field Member
James Dillard, Outside Unit & Field Member
Michael Nelson, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- Political Science
Civil Wars
Terrorism
Rebel Groups
Rebel Recruitment - Abstract:
- An extensive body of literature examines how rebel organizations employ material and ideological appeals for recruitment. However, there is currently a lack of data on the recruitment practices of a large cross-section of groups, making it difficult to test a variety of implications stemming from theories about rebel recruitment. This dissertation introduces the Rebel Appeals and Incentives Dataset (RAID), which contains novel data on the persuasive recruitment practices for all rebel groups involved in intrastate conflicts in Africa from 1989-2011. The first chapter shows that the goals of groups, and the political structures of the countries in which they operate, drive choices in ideological and material recruitment appeals. The next two chapters examine the consequences of these tactics, building off the notion that ideological appeals attract more committed recruits. The second chapter finds that ideological-based recruitment, by itself, does not have a significant association with sexual violence, but that such appeals condition the relationship between forced recruitment and sexual violence. The third chapter finds that groups survive longer when they rely more on ideological appeals, but that they are not more likely to achieve their goals. The final chapter shows that while groups that rely on material recruitment incentives are likely to use forced recruitment in many contexts, groups with ideological-based recruitment tactics are only more likely to employ forced recruitment when they face competition from other rebel groups. Thus, this dissertation shows that rebel group recruitment strategies have meaningful consequences.