RT Article
T1 Violence on the Home Front: Interstate Rivalry and Pro-Government Militias
JF Terrorism and political violence
VO 33
IS 3
SP 466
OP 488
A1 Akins, Harrison
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1757685685
AB With an increased focus on the role of pro-government militias in understanding intra-state conflict, scholars have primarily argued that states use militias as a proxy of the government because of low capacity or as a means of avoiding responsibility for violence against civilians. However, states with both high capacity and a willingness to commit violence against civilians have also relied upon pro-government militias in counterinsurgency operations. This paper argues that states involved in enduring interstate rivalries are more likely to use pro-government militias in order to reserve conventional military forces for potential conflict with their rival. Based on a case study of India’s Kashmir insurgency and logit analysis of pro-government militia data from 1981 to 2001, the findings provide empirical support for this theory and are robust to alternative measures and model specifications.
K1 intra-state conflict
K1 India
K1 interstate rivalry
K1 Counterinsurgency
K1 Militias
K1 Kashmir
DO 10.1080/09546553.2018.1548353