Rebel diplomacy and negotiated settlement in civil wars

Abstract

Rebel diplomacy in civil wars is an emerging research area, and we do not know the extent to which it contributes to the type of civil war termination. This article posits rebel diplomacy as the practices of communication and persuasion intended to generate external and internal pressures which make the government and rebel more amenable to each others’ demands. The implication of this theoretical argument is that the government and rebel groups would be able to find compromises and settle civil wars in a negotiated peace agreement. Findings from the analysis of 136 civil wars since 1950 support the theoretical argument. This finding is robust in alternative model specification and after modelling the endogenous effect of factors that explain the rebel use of diplomacy.