The nonviolent legacies of rebel group origins
2026-03-09
Violent nonstate actors are increasingly seen as engaging in a diverse set of tactics, including nonviolent resistance. The use of nonviolent tactics by rebels complicates our understanding of rebels as primarily violent challengers to the state. What determines rebel groups’ use of nonviolent tactics? Extant research explains this tactical choice with mobilization potential and incentives that external actors create. We propose an alternative, organization-centric approach. Shifting the focus to the role of organizational legacies in tactics decisions, we argue that a rebel group’s tactical choice between violent and nonviolent contention is influenced by the type of parent organization from which it descends. Rebel groups inherit organizational capacities, behavioral norms, and personnel from parent organizations. These factors shape decisions on and norms with respect to the use of contentious tactics. We contend that groups with nonviolent parent organizations should be more likely to engage in nonviolent tactics, and should do so earlier in conflict, than those with other types of parent organizations, as they inherit organizational repertoires comprised of peaceful practices, norms against violence, and members socialized into nonviolent contentious politics. We test our argument using a quantitative research design with the newly updated SRDP dataset on the tactics of self-determination groups and the FORGE dataset on rebel group origins. We find that rebels with roots in organizations that used nonviolence are more likely to employ nonviolent tactics and use these tactics significantly earlier in wartime than rebels with other types of parent organizations.