Religious institutionalism: a domestic explanation for external support of rebel groups

What motivates state support for rebel groups? The literature on state support for rebel groups has made critical developments. In particular, scholarship has shed light on the impact of religious identity links. Less work, however, examines the level of religious institutionalism in external states...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International interactions
Main Author: Ives, Brandon (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor and Francis 2019
In: International interactions
Further subjects:B Uprising
B Militia
B Statistical analysis
B Support
B Religious institution
B Religion
B Civil war
B Politics
B Foreign country
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:What motivates state support for rebel groups? The literature on state support for rebel groups has made critical developments. In particular, scholarship has shed light on the impact of religious identity links. Less work, however, examines the level of religious institutionalism in external states. I argue that the impact of religious links is conditional on the extent to which religion is institutionalized in the external state. Religiously institutionalized states allow domestic religious forces more space in the political arena, which increases pressure on state leaders to support co-religious rebel groups. Using statistical analysis, I find that the interaction of religious institutionalism and religious links affects the likelihood of support. When an external state and rebel group have religious links, and the external state has a high level of religious institutionalism, the likelihood of support is high. In contrast, without a high level of religious institutionalism in the external state, religious links do not increase the likelihood of support. The relationship is driven by cases where the external and target states do not share a religion. This article contributes to existing literature by moving beyond transnational religious links and focuses on how religious institutionalism increases domestic pressure to support co-religious rebel groups.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 716-719
ISSN:1547-7444
Contains:Enthalten in: International interactions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2019.1621309