Final Report Summary - CSV (Conflict, Strategies, and Violence: An Actor-based Approach to Violent and Non-Violent Interactions)
This project examines aims and strategy in conflict, and takes a comparative and actor oriented approach to violent and non-violent conflict. The project has in particular focused on models of the onset, dynamics, and outcomes of non-violent direct action and comparisons with the outbreak and dynamics of violent conflict, in terms of factors affecting tactic choice. In brief, we argue that the factors motivating non-violent dissent do not look conceptually different from the factors motivating violent dissent, and that political exclusion and grievances (including a lack of democratic competition) can motivate both. However, that the types of actors, resources, and location involved in the two types of conflicts differ notably. We develop a generative formal model of tactic choice where groups that can mobilize larger number have a mobilization advantage using non-violent tactics. We provide empirical evidence consistent with the model. For example, on-violent direct action is much more likely to involve universal claims or calls for regime change, have generally higher participation, mobilization or events in urban areas, and are more likely to occur in countries that combine higher social resources with plausible motivation. By contrast, violence is more likely to be used to advance separatist claims and take place in the periphery. The project also looks at new data on claims on the government and incompatibilities to examine factors affecting claims and violent versus non-violent mobilization. The project has also looked at how violent and non-violent can affect democratization and political change, the geography of different types of conflict dissent, and the transnational diffusion of conflict.
The project has so far resulted in 25 items in print or accepted for publication in peer reviewed outlets, and a number of manuscripts are currently under review or in preparation for submission.
The project has also helped recruit, train, and mentor junior researchers.
The awards and esteem indicators over the period attest to the consolidation of the status of Gleditsch as a leading researcher on political conflict and his appointment to the Regius Professorship of Political Science at the University of Essex.
The project has so far resulted in 25 items in print or accepted for publication in peer reviewed outlets, and a number of manuscripts are currently under review or in preparation for submission.
The project has also helped recruit, train, and mentor junior researchers.
The awards and esteem indicators over the period attest to the consolidation of the status of Gleditsch as a leading researcher on political conflict and his appointment to the Regius Professorship of Political Science at the University of Essex.