Why Rebels Stop Fighting: Organizational Decline and Desertion in Colombia's Insurgency

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Published: Spring 2021

In this March 11, 2009 file photo, a group of rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attend a ceremony where they graduated as "peacemakers" after they renounced the rebel group and the armed struggle, at La Picota prison in southern Bogota, Colombia. Behind bars some 4,000 FARC members are waiting anxiously for January 2017, for the passage of an amnesty law that will allow them to leave behind long prison sentence and rejoin their comrades as part of a peace deal.

Summary

Existing research stresses the importance of individual motivations for desertion, but organizational decline also can condition desertion. Analysis of unique data on more than 19,000 reported deserters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reveals that organizational decline undermines a group’s instruments to promote collective action, including selective incentives, ideological appeal, and coercion. This decline leads to desertion, which can both contribute to ending conflict and accelerate the recruitment of new combatants.

Recommended citation

Enzo Nussio and Juan E. Ugarriza, "Why Rebels Stop Fighting: Organizational Decline and Desertion in Colombia's Insurgency," International Security, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Spring 2021), pp. 167–203, doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00406.