Liu, Wo
(2024)
Militia and Civilian Death in Civil Wars.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Civil wars are devastating conflicts that often result in significant casualties, with civilians being the most affected. However, most studies on civilian victimization in civil wars tend to treat civilians as passive participants, overlooking their agency and the choices they make in these conflicts. Militia groups, one form of civilian response to conflicts, have been attracting more and more public and academic attention in recent years. While emerging studies of militia groups have provided valuable insights on how and why they are formed, little attention has been paid on their impacts on the dynamics of civil wars. By conducting a detailed analysis of four militia groups in the Chinese Civil War, the dissertation argues that militia groups could play a significant role in shaping the dynamics of civil wars and can have a considerable impact on civilian victimization. However, their behavior and interactions with other actors, such as states and rebels, are not well-understood. To address these research gaps, the dissertation presents a comprehensive theoretical framework for conceptualizing militia groups and proposes a new typology of militias. The framework establishes a boundary for the definition of "militia" and identifies two defining variables of militia-state interactions: interest alignment and militia containment. It categorizes militias into four types: death squads, defensive patrols, stationary bandits, and crowds. Each type is characterized by different degrees of interest alignment with the state and militia containment. I apply case studies to further illustrate the validity of my theory on militias and civilian victimization in civil war comparing to competing theories. By examining the empirical data and employing typological theory, the dissertation explores how the proposed theoretical framework could apply in four civil war cases: the Ivory Coast Civil War, the Indonesian Civil War, the Peruvian Civil War, and the Sri Lanka Civil War.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
3 June 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
28 November 2023 |
| Approval Date: |
3 June 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
10 April 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
184 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs > Public and International Affairs |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
civil war, civilian victimization, militia group |
| Date Deposited: |
03 Jun 2024 14:20 |
| Last Modified: |
03 Jun 2024 14:20 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46076 |
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