Roos Haer

Becoming cruel Appetitive aggression released by detrimental socialisation in former Congolese soldiers

Appetitive aggression – a rewarding perception of the perpetration of violence – seems to be an adaptation common to adverse conditions. Children raised within armed groups may develop attitudes and values that favour harming others when socialized within a combat force. Combatants who joined an armed force early in their lives should, therefore, perceive aggression in a more appetitive way than those who were recruited later. We interviewed 95 former members of armed groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those combatants that were having higher levels of appetitive aggression were those who joined a rebel force earlier in life. Surprisingly, neither the amount of military training nor the amount of time spent in the forces had a significant effect on the level of appetitive aggression. Our results show that when civil socialization is replaced by socialization within an armed group early in life, self-regulation of appetitive aggression may become deficient, leading to a higher propensity towards cruelty.

A methodological note on quantitative field research in conflict zones: get your hands dirty

Research in areas affected by armed conflict presents many challenges beyond those normally encountered by social scientists. This enhanced complexity has resulted in the conventional academic view that serious quantitative field research has to wait until the fighting stops. Those studies that were conducted in a conflict area fail to discuss how insecurity affects the methodological side of the research process. In this article, the authors argue that valid and reliable quantitative fieldwork is possible even in the most dangerous contexts, but it requires some methodological flexibility. In discussing this flexibility, the authors devote attention to two major components of quantitative survey research: the sampling process and the data collection. In doing so, this article focuses in particular on face-to-face interviews as the mode of data collection.

Child soldiers as time bombs? : Adolescents' participation in rebel groups and the recurrence of armed conflict

The existent work on child soldiering began only recently to systematically study its consequences, both theoretically and empirically. The following article seeks to contribute to this by examining the impact of rebels’ child soldier recruitment practices during war on the risk of armed conflict recurrence in post-conflict societies. We argue that child soldiering in a previous dispute may increase both the willingness and opportunity to resume fighting in the post-conflict period, while disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes could decrease these aspects of conflict recurrence. Empirically, we analyse time-series cross-section data on post-conflict country-years between 1989 and 2005. The findings highlight that the risk of conflict recurrence does, indeed, increase with child soldiers who fought in an earlier dispute, but — counter-intuitively — is unlikely to be affected by the presence of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes in post-conflict societies. This research has important implications for the study of armed conflicts, child soldiering and research on post-conflict stability.

Analyzing the microfoundations of human violence in the DRC - intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and the prediction of appetitive aggression

BackgroundCivil wars are characterized by intense forms of violence, such as torture, maiming and rape. Political scientists suggest that this form of political violence is fostered through the provision of particular intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to combatants. In the field of psychology, the perpetration of this kind of cruelty is observed to be positively linked to appetitive aggression. Over time, combatants start to enjoy the fights and even the perpetration of atrocities. In this study, we examine how receiving rewards (intrinsic versus extrinsic) influence the level of appetitive aggression exhibited by former combatants.MethodWe surveyed 95 former combatants in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.ResultsLinear regression analyses reveal that intrinsic as well as extrinsic rewards are linked to the former combatants’ Appetitive Aggression score. However, this relationship is partly determined by the way in which combatants are recruited: While abducted combatants seem to react more strongly to extrinsic rewards, the score of those that joined voluntarily is primarily determined by intrinsic rewards.ConclusionsWe conclude that receiving rewards influence the level of appetitive aggression. However, which type of rewards (intrinsic versus extrinsic) is of most importance is determined by the way combatants are recruited.

Create compliance and cohesion: how rebel organizations manage to survive

Established conflict theories focus on the role of incentives in the decision to join, stay, or leave an insurgency. These theories, however, disregard the pressure that an organization can impose on its members. Similar to legal organizations, we assert that a rebel organization can sustain itself by effective human resource management. Using narratives resulting from psychological trauma therapy of former combatants of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), these management strategies are examined. The analysis shows that the LRA sustains itself in the first place by the use of brute force. However, they also manage themselves by a careful selection process of their fighters, by the conscious creation of social control, and by offering their members an alternative social network in which promotion and compensation play a role.

The impact of child soldiers on rebel groups’ fighting capacities

Several rebel groups actively recruit children to serve among their ranks. While this constitutes one of the most egregious violations of children’s rights, it remains unclear what impact recruited children have on the fighting capacities of these armed groups. The existing research suggests that, on the one hand, armed groups drafting children might also be militarily effective, since it is cheaper to provide for children, they are more obedient and aggressive than adults, and easily manipulable. On the other hand, children may negatively affect rebel groups’ fighting capacities as they are less proficient combatants than adults and often difficult to control. We add to this debate by systematically analyzing the quantitative evidence on the impact of child soldiers on rebel groups’ fighting capacities. Based on the analysis of newly compiled data on child recruitment by rebel groups between 1989 and 2010, our analyses show that children may actually increase rebel groups’ fighting capacities. That said, rebels’ ability to procure arms and the access to resources seem to be more important determinants of fighting capacity. The authors discuss these findings in light of policy implications and avenues for future research.

Attaching and detaching: the successful reintegration of child soldiers

Why do some former child soldiers reintegrate more successfully into civil society than others? We attempt to understand this variation by looking at their personal experiences within the armed groups instead of focusing on the reintegration programme design. We hypothesise that, besides other factors, successful reintegration depends on the level of attachment felt towards the armed group. In other words, if a former child soldier feels a high level of attachment to the armed group, the reintegration process back into society might be more difficult. To examine this possible linkage, we examine a unique data set based on 66 interviews with Ugandan former child soldiers. Our analysis shows that those former child soldiers who still feel a higher level of trust towards the armed group are less likely to trust the members of their home community and feel accepted by them.

Using Micro-Level Data to Map State Failure: The Example of Somalia

In the study of state failure, scholars and practitioners have mostly focused on macro-level indicators to determine which state is failed and which is not. This focus overlooks crucial local and regional variation that has to be taken into account when designing interventions. In this article, we develop a new approach to examine state failure on this microlevel. Using a unique data-set on Somalia, we identify micro-level indicators for state failure. The analysis shows that micro-level data are crucial for detecting variation in state failure.

The creation of committed combatants

Theories on conflict behaviour regard armed groups as unitary actors whose members faithfully execute the orders of their leaders. Nevertheless, in reality mutinies, insubordination and fractionalisation occur. We argue that the faithful execution of orders depends on the level of organisational commitment of combatants. This level can be increased with the help of four management strategies. Using a dataset based on fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we analyse the influence of each of these strategies. The Bayesian analyses show that recruitment, training and promotion has statistical reliable influence, but that providing rewards does not.

Former Combatants on Sexual Violence During Warfare: A Comparative Study of the Perspectives of Perpetrators, Victims, and Witnesses

This study explores the reasons behind sexual violence. In doing so, we focus on structured information given by 224 former combatants from different Congolese armed groups. Unlike other studies on sexual violence, we have controlled for the combatant’s experience with sexual violence: we have self-reports on whether they have witnessed, experienced, or perpetrated sexual assault themselves. Ultimately, by asking the former combatants themselves to react on particular statements on the reasons behind sexual violence, we can glimpse the logic behind this phenomenon. The results of the comparative analysis show that perpetrators differ from nonperpetrators by emphasizing that sexual violence occurs out of frustration or as revenge. Victims, however, emphasize the lack of punishment and the fact that perpetrators want to prove their strength. All in all, we found high levels of agreement surrounding the opportunity argument behind sexual violence during warfare, i.e. it occurs because war provides the perpetrator with an opportunity for this kind of behavior.