Abstract

Do foreign fighters increase the prevalence of rebel-inflicted sexual violence? Evidence from recent armed conflicts indicates that this may be the case. However, little is known regarding the generalizability and nature of this relationship. This article argues that foreign fighters present local insurgencies with both strategic benefits—i.e., a reduced dependency on local civilians for material support—and organizational challenges—i.e., threats to intra-group cohesion. In combination, these factors increase local rebel commanders’ willingness to institute policies and oversee practices of sexual violence. I test this theory with a mixed methods research design. In the first stage, I estimate a series of ordinal logistic regression models with a sample of 143 rebel groups active from 1989 to 2011. In the second stage, I investigate further with a case study of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Together, the results demonstrate that when foreign fighters are present in the rank and file, a rebel group is likely to perpetrate more prevalent levels of sexual violence. In addition to explaining group-level differences in rebel-inflicted sexual violence, this study demonstrates how local rebel commanders adjust their internal management strategies to the presence of foreign recruits.

中文翻译：

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外国战斗人员与与冲突有关的性暴力

摘要

外国战斗人员会增加反叛分子所遭受的性暴力的发生率吗？最近发生的武装冲突的证据表明可能是这种情况。但是，关于这种关系的可概括性和性质知之甚少。本文认为，外国战斗人员既给当地叛乱提供了战略利益（即减少了对当地平民的物质支持的依赖）又给组织带来了挑战（即对集团内部凝聚力的威胁）。这些因素加在一起，增强了当地叛军指挥官制定政策和监督性暴力行为的意愿。我用混合方法研究设计测试了这一理论。在第一阶段，我估算了一系列有序Logistic回归模型，并抽取了1989年至2011年活跃的143个叛乱团体的样本。在第二阶段，我将以伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国的个案研究为基础进行进一步调查。总之，结果表明，当外国战斗人员出现在官兵中时，反叛组织很可能会实施更普遍的性暴力。除了解释由叛军造成的性暴力的团体层面差异外，本研究还展示了当地叛军指挥官如何根据外国新兵的存在调整其内部管理策略。