Elisabeth Jean Wood

Variation in Sexual Violence during War

Sexual violence during war varies in extent and takes distinct forms. In some conflicts, sexual violence is widespread, yet in other conflicts—including some cases of ethnic conflict—it is quite limited. In some conflicts, sexual violence takes the form of sexual slavery; in others, torture in detention. I document this variation, particularly its absence in some conflicts and on the part of some groups. In the conclusion, I explore the relationship between strategic choices on the part of armed group leadership, the norms of combatants, dynamics within small units, and the effectiveness of military discipline.

Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?

This article explores a particular pattern of wartime violence, the relative absence of sexual violence on the part of many armed groups. This neglected fact has important policy implications: If some groups do not engage in sexual violence, then rape is not inevitable in war as is sometimes claimed, and there are stronger grounds for holding responsible those groups that do engage in sexual violence. After developing a theoretical framework for understanding the observed variation in wartime sexual violence, the article analyzes the puzzling absence of sexual violence on the part of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of Sri Lanka.

Ideology in civil war

How important is ideology for the analysis of civil war? In contrast to literature that neglects ideology in its emphasis on structural variables or situational incentives, this article argues for the recognition of its essential role in the functioning of armed groups if they are to explain observed variation in armed group behavior. For example, sidelining ideology leaves major phenomena unexplained, including both mass killing and restraint in violence against civilians. Ideology is defined as a set of more or less systematic ideas that identify a constituency, the objectives pursued on behalf of that group, and a program of action (perhaps only vaguely defined). Ideology matters in two ways. First, it has instrumental value for armed groups, socializing combatants with heterogeneous motivations into a coherent group, dampening principal-agent problems, prioritizing competing goals, and coordinating external actors including civilians. Ideologies differ in the kind of institutions and strategies they prescribe for meeting these challenges and in the extent to which they do so. Yet this first approach is incomplete, as ideology has more than instrumental value. Members of some armed groups act on normative commitments in ways not reducible to instrumental reasoning, and some groups constrain their strategic choices for ideological reasons, often normative concerns prescribed by their ideology. Some groups, for example, engage in restraint, declining to use violence though it would have strategic benefit. The conclusion lays out a twin-fold research agenda: a ‘weak program’ that analyzes the instrumental adoption of ideology and a ‘strong program’ that explores normative commitments based on particular ideologies and on social preferences.

An Insurgent Path to Democracy Popular Mobilization, Economic Interests, and Regime Transition in South Africa and El Salvador

In El Salvador and South Africa, mobilization by the economically and socially marginalized impelled the transition to democracy, forcing the initial liberalization of the regime and eventually laying the political and economic foundations for democratizing compromise. These cases thus provide an opportunity to analyze one mechanism by which mobilization “from below” impels some regime transitions. In this insurgent path to democracy, sustained mobilization by poor and working-class people transformed key interests of economic elites, leading to pressure on the state to compromise with the insurgents, thereby strengthening regime moderates over hard-liners with the result that negotiated transitions to democracy followed. The dramatis personae of these transitions were not contending elite factions, as in most Latin American and southern European transitions, but representatives of distinct classes whose conflict of economic interest propelled the conflict and whose economic interdependence contributed to the structural basis of its democratizing resolution.

Lineshape analysis and filter difference method for a high intensity time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering spectrometer

Abstract The use of polycrystalline filter analysers in inelastic neutron scattering allows relatively high count rates to be achieved. Its application to time-of-flight (TOF) techniques is important because the new pulsed neutron sources are expected to provide higher neutron fluxes than currently available. We present therefore a detailed lineshape analysis for inelastic spectra taken by a TOF filter analyser. By means of a convolution of the instrinsic line shape for the vibrational mode with that for instrumental parameters and the filter transmission function, the asymmetry caused by the latter can be modelled out by a fitting procedure. Most of the drawbacks of this approach are eliminated by taking a difference between two filter analysers with different cutoffs, which results in symmetrized, narrow experimental lineshapes. The analysis is extended to this case and the design along with some experimental results of a successfully operating prototype filter difference spectrometer at the Los Alamos pulsed spallation neutron source (WNR/PSR Facility) are presented.

What Should We Mean by “Pattern of Political Violence”? Repertoire, Targeting, Frequency, and Technique

To leverage the full range of observed variation in patterns of violence toward the development and testing of theories of political violence, scholars need adequate conceptual foundations: what should we mean by a pattern of violence on the part of an armed organization? Scholars often distinguish degrees or levels or types of violence across organizations and conflicts, but definitions and measures vary sharply. We argue that patterns of violence are not reducible in ways often assumed in the literature: lethal violence is not a good proxy for the overall pattern, and differences in patterns are not well captured in the binary “terror” versus “restraint.” To address these concerns, we provide a new conceptualization of political violence, defining an organization’s pattern of violence as the configuration of repertoire, targeting, frequency, and technique in which it regularly engages. This approach adds precision to the documentation and analysis of political violence, clarifies the evaluation of rival theories, and opens up new research questions. We demonstrate its utility through an analysis of violence against civilians in Colombia, drawing on an original database of massacres, judicial proceedings, and other sources, and show that the concept of “pattern” helps bring ideology and politics back into the analysis of organized violence.

The persistence of sexual assault within the US military

What accounts for the puzzling persistence of sexual assault of both women and men within the ranks of the US military? Despite increasing efforts to end this intraforce violence, sexual assault of women persists at levels comparable to those in the civilian population and significantly higher than that of other crimes (data challenges prevent comparing rates for men). Drawing on recent analysis of rape as a practice rather than a strategy of war, we suggest the answer lies in the socialization not only of recruits but also of officers. We draw on an original typology of socialization processes and analysis of four well-documented cases to suggest the following account of why sexual assault persists. First, informal socialization processes (including sexualized hazing) trivialize sexual harassment and assault, establish assault as an appropriate form of punishment (including of those transgressing military gender norms), and license retaliation against victims who report. Second, officers sometimes sexually harass and assault subordinates, thereby endorsing similar acts by servicemembers under their command. Third, formal socialization processes of enlisted men and women, despite recent reforms, continue to reproduce a masculinity that undermines policies that seek to prevent sexual assault, in part because it fails to override these unauthorized and illegal socialization processes. Finally, the socialization of officers, combined with problematic incentive structures, undercuts efforts to end the de facto tolerance of sexual abuse by many officers. In our emphasis on horizontal as well as top-down socialization processes, and on those that subvert official policies as well as those that seek to inculcate them, we also contribute to scholarly understanding of socialization within organizations more generally.

Field Research During War: Ethical Dilemmas

Field research in conflict zones is challenging for both methodological and ethical reasons. In conflict zones, the usual imperatives of empirical research (to gather and analyze accurate data to address a relevant theoretical question) are intensified by the absence of unbiased data from sources such as newspapers, the partisan nature of much data compiled by organizations operating in the conflict zone, the difficulty of establishing what a representative sample would be and carrying out a study of that sample, and the obvious logistical challenges. Similarly, the ethical imperative of research (“do no harm”) is intensified in conflict zones by political polarization, the presence of armed actors, the precarious security of most residents, the general unpredictability of events, and the traumatization through violence of combatants and civilians alike. As should always be the case, researchers in developing their research design and methods should take account of ethical imperatives from the beginning of the project’s development. In the hope of contributing to further research in conflict zones, in this essay I discuss ethical dilemmas that confront field researchers working in conflict zones and assess the extent to which research procedures can adequately address those dilemmas. I argue that whether research procedures can address many such dilemmas depends critically on the particular conflict setting; there are some settings where research cannot be ethically conducted and should not be attempted or should be curtailed. In many settings, on the other hand, research procedures can address many dilemmas reasonably well but ethical research always depend critically on the judgment of the researcher; following abstract rules will not be sufficient. Thus training of field researchers should explicitly prepare them for anticipated ethical dilemmas and also instill ethical principles to guide their judgment in the field. For this essay I draw on my experience of 26 months of field research in rural areas of El Salvador during the civil war. After briefly summarizing the purpose and general methodology of the research, including workshops in which local residents depicted land occupations by drawing maps, I first discuss the particular conditions of the war during the period of research. I then discuss ethical dilemmas that I confronted and analyze the adequacy of the research procedures I followed to implement the “do no harm” ethic, with an emphasis on the protocol meant to ensure that my interviews took place with the fully informed consent of those

Rape as a Practice of War: Toward a Typology of Political Violence:

When rape by an armed organization occurs frequently, it is often said to be a strategy of war. But some cases of conflict-related rape are better understood as a practice, violence that has not been explicitly adopted as organization policy but is nonetheless tolerated by commanders. The typology of conflict-related rape in this article emphasizes not only vertical relationships between commanders (principals) and combatants (agents) but also the horizontal social interactions among combatants. It analyzes when rape is likely to be prevalent as a practice, emphasizing not only gendered norms and beliefs of the society from which combatants come but also how those might be transformed by the organization’s socialization processes. In the conclusion, I suggest that the typology is relevant for analysts of all forms of of political violence and also for prosecutors, policy advocates, and policymakers concerned with conflict-related rape.

Repression, Resistance, and Democratic Transition in Central America@@@Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador

Chapter 1 Introduction: Concepts, Issues, and Background Part 2 I The Countries Chapter 3 Guatemala: Intervention, Repression, Revolt, and Negotiated Transition Chapter 4 El Salvador: Revolt and Negotiated Transition Chapter 5 Honduras: Militarism and Democratization in Troubled Waters Chapter 6 Nicaragua: Transition through Revolution Chapter 7 Costa Rica: Buffeted Democracy Chapter 8 Panama: Militarism and Imposed Transition Part 9 II The Forces Chapter 10 External Actors: Other States Chapter 11 External Actors: The United Nations and the Organization of American States Chapter 12 Religion in the Central American Embroglio Chapter 13 Neoliberalism in Central America Chapter 14 Civil Society and Democratic Transition Chapter 15 Conclusion: Conceptual Issues on Democratization in Central America Chapter 16 Index Chapter 17 About the Contributors