Foreign Conflict Research Articles

Do wars abroad affect attitudes at home?

Can foreign conflicts affect attitudes in nonbelligerent countries? A large literature studies the effects of conflicts and wars on countries that are directly involved, without considering the potential consequences for other nonbelligerent countries that might nevertheless be threatened. To address this question, we examine how the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected 12 economic and political attitudes using survey data covering eight European countries. We use a natural experiment whereby the timing of the invasion overlapped with the fieldwork of a cross-national individual-level survey in these eight countries. We find that the war increased support for democracy, redistribution, support for Europe, and immigration, while it reduced authoritarian attitudes. Our findings highlight the impact of foreign conflicts on a wide range of attitudes in countries that are externally threatened, but neither directly involved militarily, nor necessarily very close to the conflict.

If we cooperate together, we intervene together: Defense cooperation agreements and support to conflict parties

As governments increasingly turn to defense cooperation agreements (DCAs) to institutionalize defense relations, there is little scholarly knowledge of the impact of these agreements in civil wars. Are DCA partners more likely to militarily intervene in civil conflicts together compared with countries without DCAs? While studies show that formal alliance commitments impact the likelihood of parties participating in foreign interventions, DCAs have received little attention in the literature even though DCAs between partner states are signed frequently and subject to change. This study argues that partners in DCAs are likely to provide external military support to the same conflict parties. Our theoretical model suggests that DCAs provide an arena for socialization where governments and military organizations that are DCA partners have repeated interactions. As a result of socialization, their foreign policy goals increasingly align, including their approach to military intervention in foreign conflicts. With access to similar weapons material, military training, and information, DCAs facilitate joint interventions between partner states. Examining the probability of intervention in civil conflicts during the period of 1980–2009, we find that countries that are DCA partners are more likely to provide military assistance to the same warring parties compared with countries without DCAs.

Swedish Veterans of Foreign Conflicts and Veteran Health Limbo

Swedish Veterans of Foreign Conflicts and Veteran Health Limbo

Regional and spatial impacts of external and internal conflicts on ecological footprint: the case of Middle East and Africa.

The economic and environmental structures of countries are greatly impacted by domestic and foreign conflicts. To promote sustainable development, it is crucial to understand the spatial impact of these conflicts on the ecological footprint of a region. With a focus on Middle Eastern and African countries, this paper investigates the impact of such conflicts on their environments, taking into consideration the unique spatial features of their ecological footprints. Using a spatial econometric model, the study assesses the contributions of ecological footprint determinants, particularly internal and external conflict indicators, across 46 Middle Eastern and African countries from 2001 to 2019. The results indicate that internal conflict can lead to increased pressure on natural resources and ecological systems in neighboring countries, while energy use and economic growth impose a significant ecological burden both domestically and abroad. While urbanization and resource rents were found to reduce the ecological footprint, trade openness was found to be nonsignificant. Conflicts such as war, foreign pressure, civil war, and civil disorder were found to have a significant negative impact on the environment, suggesting that reducing these conflicts would improve environmental circumstances. The findings highlight the need for conflict resolution measures to achieve a sustainable environment in the Middle Eastern and African regions and have implications for other countries facing similar issues.

Unpacking Foreign Fighting: New Zealand’s Legislative Responses to Transnational Combatants

Is it lawful for New Zealanders to travel overseas to participate in a foreign conflict? Political statements and travel advisories have discouraged the private participation of New Zealanders in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. Yet, prohibitions in New Zealand’s law are currently restricted to criminal offences related to the ‘mercenary’ and the ‘foreign terrorist fighter’. Foreign fighting or foreign incursion conceived more broadly are not specifically prohibited. At first glance, the chosen mercenary-terrorist binary appears unreflective, leaving unhelpfully unpacked any broader phenomena of transnational combatants who might not be fighting with designated terrorist entities or for financial gain as mercenaries – such as volunteers fighting in Ukraine or with Kurdish forces in Syria. This article brings together the various areas of law that address these questions, providing a historical account of how the law has evolved over time. It reveals how New Zealand’s discourse in key moments of legislative debate has in fact continually preserved space for certain types of private involvement in transnational armed violence. The article suggests, therefore, that the unpacking still required is not necessarily that of seeking better understanding of transnational participation in war and its policy considerations, but rather further consideration of the values and assumptions underlying the permissive legal positions taken in the first place.

Who Becomes a Foreign Fighter? Characteristics of the Islamic State’s Soldiers

ABSTRACT Contemporary conflicts are becoming increasingly transnational in nature. In particular, individuals are leaving their homelands to participate in foreign conflicts at an unprecedented rate. This paper analyzes the foreign fighter phenomenon in the context of the Islamic State. Using primary source data on individual ISIS members from the Middle East, this paper contributes to the literature with two key findings. The first affirms previous work on terrorist participants and finds that those who join the Islamic State are more educated and younger than others from the same country. Second, other characteristics that are thought to correlate with joining a terrorist organization, such as prior occupation and marital status, have an inconsistent association and vary by country. Specifically, individuals with a university education and who also hold an unskilled job have the highest likelihood of joining ISIS. Overall, the results suggest that relative deprivation drives participation in foreign fighting.

Backing Out but Backing In Audience Costs? A Replication of Levy et al. (2015)

AbstractLevy et al. (2015) propose that inconsistency audience costs are caused in two ways: backing out of military commitment or backing into foreign conflicts. We replicate their experiment in July–August, 2021. Like many other studies, we find evidence for audience costs caused by backing out. However, our findings indicate that, unlike Levy et al., citizens are no less supportive of a leader who backs into a military conflict despite an initial commitment to stay out than one who behaves consistently. This study has significant theoretical and methodological implications. Theoretically, the importance of inconsistency in audience cost literature may be overstated or inconsistency audience costs may be bounded by temporal domains or contexts. Methodologically, our study emphasizes the necessity of replications because major findings can become conventional wisdom without such additional analysis.

The World That Fear Made: Slave Revolts and Conspiracy Scares in Early America

The World That Fear Made: Slave Revolts and Conspiracy Scares in Early America

Situated and subjugated: Fixer knowledge in the global newsroom

This article examines the role of the fixer in international news production, particularly war reportage, and reorients an ongoing debate about the role of local media-workers in foreign bureaus. While the institutional conditions of fixing have received some scholarly attention, the epistemic dimension of fixers’ labour yet requires critical examination. Utilizing eighteen months of participant observation and qualitative interviews with fixers and foreign journalists in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, I demonstrate that the local, ‘situated’ knowledge of fixers is both structural to, and ultimately suppressed by, the global, ‘professional’ knowledge of international news. This tension is evident in the routines of war reportage – gathering information, navigating checkpoints – and in journalism’s generic conventions, as where the byline – mark of professional authorship – establishes a hierarchy regarding what counts as authoritative meanings for war. In resituating analysis of fixing from the institutional to the epistemic, this article aims to recover the displacements inherent to normative representations of foreign conflict.

The budgets of wars: Analysis of the U.S. defense stocks in the Post-Cold War era

In this study, we consider the effects of the U.S military participation in direct and indirect foreign conflicts, defense budget announcements, and various political factors have on the abnormal returns to five largest U.S. defense companies’ share prices. We conducted this analysis by using a fixed effect panel approach along with event studies, using quarterly data over 30 years, from 1990 through the end of 2019. Our findings contribute to the largely dated and highly fragmented literature on the geopolitical drivers of the MIC (military-industrial complex) shares performance. We find that, in contrast to the established literature, defense budgets announcements have complex and dynamic statistically significant positive impacts on defense company stock performance through current period budget announcements, changes to the prior budget announcements and lagged budget announcements. We also find that a single party control over the House of Representatives and the Senate has no significant impact on abnormal returns, whereas solely having a Republican President in office acts as a significant catalyst for excess returns to MIC stocks when compared to the Democratic Party Presidencies. Consistent with potential for overshooting expectations by investors, direct conflict participation has a significantly positive impact on stock performance. This effect is almost fully moderated by the subsequent period negative reaction. Overall, our evidence suggests that defense companies perform better in those periods with greater likelihood of unexpected conflict-related news, greater geopolitical volatility, less informationally efficient markets, and the potential for conflict escalation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of determinants of abnormal returns to MIC stocks that takes explicit account of the nature of U.S. participation in a military conflict (direct vs indirect), while controlling for an exhaustive range of complex budgetary and political factors and lags.

Other People’s Wars: The U.S. Military and the Challenge of Learning from Foreign Conflicts

Other People’s Wars: The U.S. Military and the Challenge of Learning from Foreign Conflicts

Influencing factors of ‘local’ conflict journalism and implications for media development: A critical appraisal

When conflicts emerge the media often become, intended or not, a key actor. It is through media that every party within a conflict attempts to convey its own narrative, contributing to a complex reality that affects journalists’ work in many different ways. This article aims to reflect on factors of influence on conflict coverage in the context of media development in Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic. Developed from a western standpoint on war reporters covering foreign conflicts, we propose to adapt this model to ‘local’ contexts in order to provide a more holistic analysis of journalism in conflict settings, but also to propose entry points for constructive coordination among multiple media development actors. In this article, we discuss the audience dimension, the pressure put through lobbies, the journalists’ personal features, the situation on-site, structural factors referring to the broader media and information system, and the political climate. We strive to offer a critique so as to adapt to the relevance of ‘local’ journalists living and reporting in conflict-affected areas, in which media development assistance often takes place, in opposition to international foreign correspondents that are deployed to cover far-away violent conflicts.

Foreign Fighters, Returnees and a Resurgent Taliban

Abstract This essay surveys the recent history of Central Asian mobilization to foreign conflicts and insurgencies and offers a discussion potential for a new wave of migration that the fall of the Afghan government and a victorious Taliban insurgency could present for the region. It argues that new developments have increased the importance of understanding the causes of conflict migration from Central Asia to both ensure successful re-integration of returnees and prevent a new wave of conflict migration. This contribution presents evidence that a one-dimensional focus on ideological or theological motivations for past waves of conflict migration is a poor explanatory mechanism for the broader conflict. A complex, localized, and multi-factor approach provides a much better explanatory model for mobilization to both local violence and foreign conflict.

Modern Technologies for Resolving Conflicts Within an Organization

Research problem and degree of the research: Today, conflicts take place in all organizations. Current realities do not allow enterprises to exist in a comfort zone without internal obstacles; otherwise, an institution simply will not survive. This article is based on both the positive meaning of conflict and on an analysis of the negative aspects of conflict, specifically regarding modern technologies which allow resolving conflict contradictions in some cases or to avoid it completely in others, for example, when there are rudiments of their maturation. Purpose of the article: to analyze modern technologies for resolving conflicts in an organization. Subject of the article: Modern technologies for conflict resolution. There are quite a few types of intra-organizational conflicts, but we will focus on the contradictions that arise in teams. The article analyzes the technologies of conflict resolution in two projections: in resolving a conflict that has already arisen and in its prevention. Research methods: The following research methods were used: ⎯ theoretical analysis of scientific sources; ⎯ analysis of foreign conflict resolution techniques. Modern conflict resolution technologies are focused on the constructive participation of all parties to the conflict. At the same time, the managers’ actions play a certain role, as they are endowed with exclusive functions for managing conflicts within their department and they are personally responsible for the situation in the team. Of course, it is necessary to apply preventive methods to prevent contradictions. If nevertheless the conflict emerged for various reasons: either the contradiction was implicit, or this issue was not given due attention, it is necessary to be guided by slightly different methods. In any case, the resolution of intra-organizational conflicts in a team should be focused on the psychological aspect of employees. It is necessary to work with each employee, paying attention to his or her needs and interests. Conclusion. This article examined the main modern methods for preventing and resolving conflicts, used in many organizations. The theoretical aspects of intra-organizational conflicts, including the cause of the conflict, its’ structure and typology were considered. The article was also focused on the typical managers’ mistakes when resolving conflicts. Key words: corporate conflict, resolution technologies, managerial impact, mediation.

Comfortable Urban Environment as a Factor of Regional Tourism Development

Research problem and degree of the research: Today, conflicts take place in all organizations. Current realities do not allow enterprises to exist in a comfort zone without internal obstacles; otherwise, an institution simply will not survive. This article is based on both the positive meaning of conflict and on an analysis of the negative aspects of conflict, specifically regarding modern technologies which allow resolving conflict contradictions in some cases or to avoid it completely in others, for example, when there are rudiments of their maturation. Purpose of the article: to analyze modern technologies for resolving conflicts in an organization. Subject of the article: Modern technologies for conflict resolution. There are quite a few types of intra-organizational conflicts, but we will focus on the contradictions that arise in teams. The article analyzes the technologies of conflict resolution in two projections: in resolving a conflict that has already arisen and in its prevention. Research methods: The following research methods were used: ⎯ theoretical analysis of scientific sources; ⎯ analysis of foreign conflict resolution techniques. Modern conflict resolution technologies are focused on the constructive participation of all parties to the conflict. At the same time, the managers’ actions play a certain role, as they are endowed with exclusive functions for managing conflicts within their department and they are personally responsible for the situation in the team. Of course, it is necessary to apply preventive methods to prevent contradictions. If nevertheless the conflict emerged for various reasons: either the contradiction was implicit, or this issue was not given due attention, it is necessary to be guided by slightly different methods. In any case, the resolution of intra-organizational conflicts in a team should be focused on the psychological aspect of employees. It is necessary to work with each employee, paying attention to his or her needs and interests. Conclusion. This article examined the main modern methods for preventing and resolving conflicts, used in many organizations. The theoretical aspects of intra-organizational conflicts, including the cause of the conflict, its’ structure and typology were considered. The article was also focused on the typical managers’ mistakes when resolving conflicts. Key words: corporate conflict, resolution technologies, managerial impact, mediation.

The morality of substitution intervention: The case of Yemen

Throughout the Yemeni Civil War, western states have supplied weapons used in the indiscriminate bombing campaign conducted by the Saudis. In defence of their actions, British politicians have argued that they are exchanging weapons for influence, and using the influence obtained to encourage compliance with humanitarian law. An additional premise in the argument is that Britain is using its influence more benignly than alternative suppliers would use theirs if Britain were not on the scene. The idea is that Britain is substituting itself for other, less scrupulous, interveners. I argue that, regardless of whether British substitution intervention could be justified in this way…, it is not in fact justified, because Britain has not plausibly used its influence to secure an amount of good sufficient to offset the various harms that its actions have created (or to discharge the expanded duties of rescue that greater influence entails). In addition, the article identifies the various forms that substitution intervention can take, and shows how the concept reveals hitherto neglected reasons to both support and oppose intervention in foreign conflicts.

Is There a New Extraterritoriality in Intellectual Property?

This Article is the first to comprehensively interrogate the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent interventions in extraterritoriality as it relates to the three historical forms of federal intellectual property: patent, copyright, and trademark. In this manner, it fills an important gap in the literature because most assessments of the presumption focus only on one area of law. Moreover, this Article offers a novel comparative assessment of the evolution of the presumption across the patent, copyright, and trademark regimes, offering both a descriptive account of the state and evolution of the law, as well as a normative assessment of whether the current state of the law best effectuates the policies that justify these forms of protection.
 In reviewing the application of the Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence in these three areas of intellectual property, the Article concludes that the Supreme Court’s effort to standardize the law of extraterritoriality has failed. Lower courts’ engagement with the presumption has been, at best, inconsistent. There are times where the courts simply ignore the Court’s recent cases, relying on previous cases and doctrine without pausing to reconsider whether those doctrines survive the Supreme Court’s latest changes to the law. The Article also concludes that this inconsistency cannot be justified based on the differing policies surrounding copyright, trademarks, and patents.
 This Article proceeds as follows. Part I discusses the state of the law of extraterritoriality in copyright, trademark, and patent, as it stood before the Supreme Court’s recent intervention. This review demonstrates that all three disciplines were treating extraterritoriality very differently, and none were paying much attention to the presumption against extraterritoriality. Part II reviews a tetralogy of recent Supreme Court cases, describing the Court’s attempt to formalize its approach to extraterritoriality across all fields of law. Part III analyzes the state of IP law in the aftermath of this tetralogy of extraterritoriality cases. It concludes that there has been some impact on patent law, but virtually none on copyright or trademark. The Article assesses whether there is a new extraterritoriality for intellectual property and concludes that there is not: The Supreme Court’s efforts, at least in IP, have not led to greater coherence. While there may be reasons for the lower courts’ failure to follow the framework, it does represent a missed opportunity for cross fertilization, at least among intellectual property regimes, if not across all fields of law. It also offers a call for the consideration of comity—looking to foreign law and potential conflicts—in deciding whether to apply U.S. law extraterritorially.

Counterterrorism legislation and far-right terrorism in Australia and the United Kingdom

Over the past two decades, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, a number of countries have enacted new laws tailored specifically to the threat posed by Islamic extremist terrorism. This includes recent legislation that has criminalised behaviour associated with ‘foreign terrorist fighters’, such as the act of travel to, or fighting in, foreign conflicts. This legislative response reflects the enactment of earlier laws, with measures designed for prior iterations of the contemporary Islamic extremist terrorist threat, such as control orders and preventative detention orders, prohibitions on extremist speech and disseminating terrorist propganda and the criminalisation of terrorist training. Yet despite the focus on Islamic extremist terrorism, this is not the only terrorist threat that Western democracies face. The rise of far-right terrorism in recent years has, however, not seen the same recourse to new legislation as has been the case for Islamic extremist terrorism. Using Australia and the United Kingdom as case studies, this article assesses the extent to which counterterrorism legislation has been used to deal with the particular threat posed by far-right terrorism. In doing so, it evaluates the lessons that might be learned from applying counterterrorism legislation designed for one particular terrorist threat to other types of terrorism.

ИНОСТРАННЫЕ ЛИЦА КАК СУБЪЕКТЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО ГРАЖДАНСКОГО ПРОЦЕССА В РОССИИ И США: ПРОБЛЕМА СУДЕБНОГО РАССМОТРЕНИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ КОММЕРЧЕСКИХ СПОРОВ

The article examines the issue of the procedural status of various aliens (individuals and legal entities, international organizations and states) in the international civil procedure of Russia and the United States of America. The author comes to conclusion that the determination of the composition of the parties of international commercial dispute (as well as the qualification of their claims and forms of legal protection) should be determined on the basis of lex (processualis) causae, reflecting the essence of the substantive disputed relationship and the peculiarities of its qualifications from the point of view of national law. The study analyzes the features of the procedural position of specific categories of actors (individuals and legal entities, international organizations and states), as well as persons facilitating justice in international commercial disputes. The article states that the limits of foreign procedural law application to the procedural status of an alien in Russian civil proceedings is mediated by his connection with the essence of the substantive disputed relationship. Depending on the nature of such a connection, the author proposes to divide aliens as actors of international civil procedure into two groups: persons directly related to the disputed legal relationship and, therefore, subordinate lex processualis personalis (parties, third parties and their representatives) and persons, communication which with a controversial legal relationship is of an indirect nature and the procedural status of which is therefore regulated by lex fori (witnesses, experts, specialists and translators). Also, the study pays attention to the problems of jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state and conflict aspects of fraudulent joinder.

Playing the Ethnic Card: Diversion, Transborder Ethnic Ties, and Sponsorship of Rebel Movements

Abstract Under what circumstances do third-party states oppose governments that marginalize their ethnic kin in foreign civil conflicts? We argue that the effect of transborder ethnic ties on third-party support for rebel movements depends upon two factors: (1) a constellation of ethnic power relations in which an ethnicity with access to political power in a potential intervener but is marginalized in a civil conflict state and (2) the political insecurity of leaders in a potential intervener. Said leaders facing a high probability of removal from office are willing to undertake risky foreign policies, including support for rebel movements, hoping that such actions will generate an ethnically tinged rally effect. We draw upon the literature on diversionary theory to develop an empirical expectation. We then assemble a dataset of potential intervener–civil conflict state dyad-years to model this expectation. The political insecurity of leaders is measured with a variety of proxies. Our findings suggest that the well-known diversionary theory can be applied to a novel dependent variable that of third-party state sponsorship of rebel movements.