RAPID: Militant Organization Preferences and Strategies for Reducing Postconflict Violence

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

Part 1. Conflict and organized criminal activity sometimes continue after terms to end civil wars are negotiated and agreed. This research investigates the postconflict preferences of militant and criminal organizations, and the strategies they use to achieve their objectives. The research involves interviews with imprisoned leaders who are participating in a peace agreement process. These leaders possess a deep and detailed knowledge of the dynamics of crime and violence including the logics of recruitment, arming, financing, and community relations. This research will use data collected from these interviews to test hypotheses about postconflict conflict and criminal activity. It promises to yield important findings and strategies for reducing violence in postconflict societies, including those that are partners of the United States. The research team will produce scholarly research and policy documents that could contribute to policy formulation in postconflict countries as well as those affected by significant levels of armed groups. The project can also be expected to help scholars, policing organizations, and others better understand the nature of criminal governance and how armed organizations prey on communities as well as provide security and dispute resolution. Part 2. Scholars have investigated the conditions that lead parties to civil conflicts negotiate peace agreements, and the degree to which such agreements contribute to the end of large-scale hostilities. This literature has devoted less attention to how militant involvement in criminal activities influence these processes. We lack knowledge of the postconflict preferences and strategies of criminal groups, and how these contribute to the negotiation of peace agreements and subsequent levels of crime, violence, and gang activity. The project addresses this gap by collecting data in the form of semi-structured interviews with leaders who have been assembled in a single prison to reach a peace agreement. The data generated from these interviews will be analyzed to understand the nature of criminal governance, how criminal organizations approach peace negotiations, and generate insights that reduce crime, violence, and gang activity. Part 3: This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.