Abstract
Do armed groups’ origins shape the evolution of civil wars? Research has started to disaggregate armed groups, demonstrating the impact of their organizational foundations for conflict outcomes. However, we still know little about how armed groups emerge in different ways and how and to what extent these origins matter in the course of conflict. Alternating between the literature on armed group emergence and case analysis, we identify, map globally, and illustrate three broad categories of origins, that is, armed groups that emerge from clandestine activities, social movements, and state splinters. We show that different origins shape armed groups’ initial internal and external relations but dynamics endogenous to civil war transform these groups, with implications for their relations. This discussion advances recent efforts to understand the importance of armed group emergence for overarching trajectories of civil wars by moving beyond static snapshots of these groups’ origins to appreciating their dynamic evolution.
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