Education, Indoctrination and Conflict: The Role of Political Education in Shaping Combatant Behaviour and Sexual Violence in Civil War

Abstract

This thesis analyses socialisation patterns within rebel groups in order to explain conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Researchers have dedicated extensive studies on the violent behaviour of rebel groups, investigating factors such as institutional explanations and individual motivations for committing rebel violence. Research has shown that rebel socialisation can be facilitated through the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) (Cohen 2016a). This thesis dives into how rebel groups socialise their recruits when not perpetrating CRSV and argues that political education as a socialisation practice can be used to predict a group's likelihood of engaging in violent behaviour and committing CRSV. However, this aspect of political education and indoctrination has not been extensively studied from a cross-national perspective due to the lack of comparable data on the efforts of political education as a socialisation practice. This thesis addresses this gap by introducing the Socialisation and Political Education in Rebel Groups (SOPERG) Data Project, which provides information on the efforts of political education within rebel organizations in Africa, intrastate conflicts between 1989 and 2021, as included in the Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC) Dataset. The thesis draws from this data and engages with a variety of rebel group patterns, such as resource provision and rebel fragmentation. This thesis helps scholars reconsider and explore various conditions that lead to or prevent rebel violence before, during, and after civil wars, while highlighting interesting variations in rebel behaviour based on socialisation patterns and demonstrating the implications of these behaviours for CRSV. Ultimately, the thesis and the novel data of the SOPERG data contribute to a better understanding of the internal processes of rebel groups and can aid in forecasting socialisation patterns and predicting when CRSV is likely to occur.