Rebels and Conflict Escalation: Explaining the Rise and Decline in Violence - Softcover

Duyvesteyn, Isabelle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009009257 ISBN 13: 9781009009256

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2024

Synopsis

Violence during war often involves upswings and downturns that have, to date, been insufficiently explained. Why does violence at a particular point in time increase in intensity and why do actors in war decrease the level of violence at other points? Duyvesteyn discusses the potential explanatory variables for escalation and de-escalation in conflicts involving states and non-state actors, such as terrorists and insurgents. Using theoretical arguments and examples from modern history, this book presents the most notable causal mechanisms or shifts in the shape of propositions that could explain the rise and decline of non-state actor violence after the start and before the termination of conflict. This study critically reflects on the conceptualisation of escalation as linear, rational and wilful, and instead presents an image of rebel escalation as accidental, messy and within a very limited range of control.

About this title

About the Author

Isabelle Duyvesteyn is Professor of International Studies/Global History at the Institute of History at Leiden University. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Netherlands Defence Academy. She sits on several editorial boards for book series and journals, and has published widely on the topics of war, peace and security in contemporary history and strategic studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009009257
• ISBN 13: 9781009009256
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286