Exploiting Local Grievances for the Sake of Rebel Defeat: How the State Instrumentalised Self-Defence Militias During Civil War in Peru and Sierra Leone

Peace and conflict research has assessed people’s motivation to take up arms predominantly by the distinction made between ‘justice-seeking’ (i.e. grievances) and ‘loot-seeking’ (i.e. greed) incentives. Moreover, the majority of studies have based their assumptions on a classic conflict dyad perspective constituted by either the state fueling escalation processes on the one hand or an armed insurgent group on the other. These two supposedly conventional wisdoms combine a research gap that will be on top of this paper: the academic neglect of those societal forces that are neither the state nor the rebel group, which however become entangled in internal armed conflict – for reasons beyond justice or loot alone. This paper will attempt to fill this theoretical and empirical void by taking a comparative look into the pivotal role of self-defense militias during civil war in Peru (1980-1995) and Sierra Leone (1991-2002). Both civil wars have been discussed as ‘grievance’-driven insurgencies evolving into ‘greed’-based conflicts set against an abundant natural resources background. Applying a dual escalation perspective that covers fueling as well as inhibiting factors of internal armed conflict, two issues will be of particular interest: first, the state’s co-optation strategy will be analyzed with respect to the means (e.g. military training) and the overall impact on the escalation onset (i.e. termination vs. prolongation). Second, the indirect effects on the security situation on the ground will be looked into at least to the same extent. It will be shown that the state’s instrumentalization of self-defense militias helped defeating the insurgent group and thus ending civil war in the long run. However, the empowerment of militias also added fuel to violence in short term as the security vacuum on the ground was taken advantage of by settling old scores with neighboring communities which were identified as ‘state enemies’.