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Too young to care? ‐ Rebel leaders' age and violent display in civil conflicts

Amelie Freiberg, Trinity College Dublin; Juliana Tappe Ortiz, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg

Perceptions of civil conflicts are commonly associated with pictures of young rebel soldiers posing with machine guns. Violence is often attributed to young men. In fact, many men become violent when they are younger. Many studies in biology, psychology, and physiology have found that aggression tends to decline with age throughout the adult lifespan. This is due to increased vulnerability to violent socialisation at a younger age. However, as the age of state leaders increases, they become more likely to both initiate and escalate militarized disputes. Little is known how age increases or decreases rebel leaders' willingness to use violence. This study utilises a mixed method design, by quantitatively examining the age of all rebel leaders involved in civil conflicts from 1989 to 2015 in relation to the intensity of the conflicts and the military tactics used. We complement this with in-depth interviews with rebels from Colombia and Nigeria. We find that rebel groups with younger male leaders are more likely to splinter and display more brutal behaviour, than rebel groups with older leaders. These findings highlight that in comparison to state leaders, younger rebel leaders can increase and intensify the levels of violence in civil conflicts.

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