ABSTRACT
Why do Civilian Defense Forces (CDFs) target civilians and even members of their own communities? CDFs are a form of pro-government militia (PGM) composed of local recruits organized to protect themselves and their villages or neighborhoods from insurgents during civil wars. Despite their recruitment among local populations and their “defensive” orientation, many CDFs violently target civilians and members of the communities that they were allegedly set up to protect. Existing studies on CDFs have focused primarily on their effects on government and insurgent violence rather than the actions of the CDFs themselves. In this chapter, using some examples from around the world, I develop some theoretical expectations toward explaining both selective and indiscriminate forms of CDF violence against civilians. Drawing on theories of contestation and control, I argue that CDF-selective violence is most likely at the early stages of their formation as part of the polarization of local communities and CDF efforts to cleanse their villages or neighborhoods of insurgents and their supporters. However, in contrast to traditional theories of contestation that focus on how control influences patterns of targeting, I argue that information and social networks are more important in explaining CDF-selective targeting. In addition, I posit that government support to CDFs as part of a counterinsurgency campaign can influence the extent to which CDFs indiscriminately target civilians but that this depends on how governments sponsor them. This chapter makes a theoretical contribution to the literatures on PGM violence against civilians.
