Talking to the Shameless?: Sexual Violence and Mediation in Intrastate Conflicts

• Author: Robert Ulrich Nagel
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0022002718824642
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Talking to the Shameless?

Sexual Violence

and Mediation

in Intrastate Conflicts

Robert Ulrich Nagel

1

Abstract

To what extent, does sexual violence influence the likelihood of conflict management

in intrastate conflicts? Despite a growing body of research that explores conflict-

related sexual violence, the literature presents little insight on its effects on conflict

resolution.Extending feminist international relations (IR) theory to intrastate conflicts

and applying a gender lens to the power to hurt argument, I argue that when rebel

sexual violence is public knowledge, the likelih ood of conflict management increases

because the state perceives it as a threat to its masculinity. I systematically test this

argumenton all intrastate conflictyears from 1990 to 2009using the Sexual Violencein

Armed Conflict and the Civil War Mediation data set. The results provide robust

support for the argument. This presents an important refinement of traditional

rationalist conflict bargaining theories and opens new avenues for the research and

practice of conflict management.

Keywords

civil wars, conflict management, mediation, sexual violence, gender

1

School of Politics and International Relations, Conflict Analysis Research Centre, Rutherford College,

University of Kent, Kent, United Kingdom

Corresponding Author:

Robert Ulrich Nagel, School of Politics and International Relations, Conflict Analysis Research Centre,

Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX, United Kingdom.

Email: run3@kent.ac.uk

Journal of Conflict Resolution

2019, Vol. 63(8) 1832-1859

ªThe Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0022002718824642

journals.sagepub.com/home/jcr

In 2010, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) agreed to

peace talks with a local militia called Mai Mai Sheka. These talks began after, in the

span of three days, the group reportedly raped 387 civilians (Autesserre 2012, 217).

Faced with this massive sexual violence, the government decided to negotiate. Some

suggest that the DRC government is not an outlier, but that governments are gen-

erally more likely to accept peace talks when rebels perpetrate sexual violence that

attracts international attention (Autesserre 2012). Accordingly, this article explores

the question: to what extent, does sexual violence influence conflict management?

Sexual violence in conflict is now widely recognized as a threat to international

security and an increasing number of studies explore its causes and variations (E. J.

Wood 2006, 2009; Cohen 2013, 2016; Cohen and Norda

˚s 2014, 2015). Although

sexual violence has often been described as strategic and “rape as a weapon of war”

is a dominant narrative (Crawford 2017), there is a robust literature on the diverse

reasons behind conflict-related sexual violence.1 At the same time, we know very

little about the effects of sexual violence on conflict processes.

One recent study starts to shed some light on the consequences of sexual violence

in conflict by examining the relationship between sexual violence and conflict out-

comes (Chu and Braithwaite 2018). Chu and Braithwaite argue that conflicts involv-

ing sexual violence are more likely to end in negotiate agreements because actors

perpetrating this type of violence are organizationally weak, less likely to secure

military victory, and thus more likely toagree on a deal to salvage anything from the

conflict. This illustrates that effects of sexual violence can be distinct from perpetra-

tors’ motivations and thus should be examined without conflating observed outcome

with underlying intent. In line with this, I focus on effects of rebel sexual violence

without assumingstrategic intent. Besides contributingto the nascent literature on the

effects of sexual violence, this study more broadlyadds an innovative argument to the

body of literature examining the effects of civilianvictimization on conflict processes

and outcomes (R. M. Wood and Kathman 2014; Thomas 2014; Fortna 2015).

Drawing on feminist international relations (IR) theory and bringing together

disparate literatures on sexual violence, gender, and conflict management, I argue

that reports of rebel sexual violence increase the likelihood of mediation because

they emasculate the state. This emasculation has two components: first, rebel sexual

violence demonstrates states’ failure to fulfill their masculine protection responsi-

bility, and second, when reported, this failure becomes a public loss of face. This

2-fold humiliation presents a conflict cost that outweighs the costs of accepting

mediation. Thus, rebel sexual violence increases the likelihood of mediation.

Employing a gender lens refines traditional rationalist bargaining theories. In draw-

ing on feminist IR theory and positivist methodology, this article contributes to the

emerging literature bridging these two approaches (Karim and Beardsley 2017).

Mediation offers benefits such as increased legitimacy to nonstate actors, while

primarily presenting costs to states. Thus, governments are likely to resist the inclu-

sion of an intermediary until expected costs of continued fighting outweigh the costs

associated with mediation. Insurgents hoping to overcome the inherent power

Nagel 1833