Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

International Relations

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

Civil war

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Balance Of Convertibility: Manipulating External Support In Civil War, Kimberly L. Wolfe Jan 2022

The Balance Of Convertibility: Manipulating External Support In Civil War, Kimberly L. Wolfe

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Despite the pervasive trend in civil war of multiple sponsors backing rebels or the government, there is surprisingly minimal analysis on how the balance of support influences conflict duration. Building on the research of Sawyer et al. (2017), who find that the “fungibility” of external support leads to longer civil war, this thesis contributes a new scoring method for analyzing the balance of “fungible” (hereafter “convertible”) support among combatants (rebels versus government), discovering that a balance of convertibility contributes to shorter conflict. Convertible resources are those that combatants manipulate to enhance their warfighting capacity, such as funding, while troops or …


Game Of Survival: External Actors' Support For Separatists, Joshua C. Underwood Jan 2020

Game Of Survival: External Actors' Support For Separatists, Joshua C. Underwood

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research develops a novel model for external actors’ support for separatists.Three variables measuring external actors’ support are identified through two case studies, Kosovo Liberation Army and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with an emphasis on Military Aid’s impact. The variables are then applied to a quantitative analysis of external actors’ support in a dataset of 75 observations during the years 1991-2020, utilizing the Uppsala Conflict Data Program External Support Dataset. The findings for this research show that Military Aid and Moral Support improve the probability of survival for a separatist group. A deeper analysis reveals that military aid among …