Open AccessVictims or Aggressors? Ethno‐Political Rebellion and Use of Force in Militarized Interstate Disputes
Author(s) -
Trumbore Peter F.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.897
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1468-2478
pISSN - 0020-8833
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2478.4702002
Subject(s) - ethnic group , politics , ethnic violence , ethnic conflict , scholarship , political science , aggression , insurgency , political economy , international relations , criminology , use of force , law , development economics , sociology , social psychology , psychology , economics , international law
Current scholarship on the international relations of ethnic conflict holds that such domestic‐level conflict can spread to become interstate conflict. Empirical research, theoretical discussions, and case studies have concluded that states suffering from violent ethnic conflict, specifically ethno‐political rebellion, can be either the victims of aggression or themselves the aggressors when ethnic conflict spreads to the international level. From both a scholarly perspective and the standpoint of policymaking it is important to know which possibility is more likely. This paper examines the behavior of states involved in militarized interstate disputes to test two possibilities: first, that states contending with ethnic rebellion are more likely to be the victims of aggression by outside actors. Alternatively, that states contending with ethnic rebellion are more likely to take aggressive action against outside states. Statistical analysis of ethnic rebellion data and militarized interstate dispute data covering the period 1980–1992 finds that states suffering from ethnic rebellion are more likely to use force and use force first when involved in international disputes than states without similar insurgency problems.