Dara Kay Cohen - Rape during Civil War

2.2. Comparison of reports by State Department
and Human Rights Watch of wartime sexual violence

This book focuses on a puzzle: why do some armed groups rape while others never do? The puzzle is challenging for (at least) two reasons. First, the data on rapeperhaps more so than on almost any other form of violenceare notoriously poor, making rigorous research difficult. And second, the process of researching the topic of rape can be emotionally demanding. As I began the research for this book, it became clear that in order to understand armed groups motivations for rape in wartime, I would need to hear directly from the members of armed groups. The process that followedincluding six trips to three countries to conduct interviews and collect datahas been immensely rewarding, but it has not been easy. Some of the stories that were shared with meboth by ex-combatants and by victims of violenceare indelibly imprinted on my memory. But despite the disturbing subject matter, and the fact that some of the events described are horrifying, the tone throughout the book is analytical, mostly leaving aside outrage in the presentation of the data and the analyses. While my indignation at the terrible violence that many people have endured in the wars featured in this book certainly guided the choice of topic, the role of a social scientist is to evaluate dispassionately the evidence for competing arguments. I am first and foremost extremely grateful for the many people around the world whom I interviewed for the research in this book and who have entrusted me with the painful details of their most difficult days. My hope is that the research I have conducted will serve as a basis for activists, practitioners, scholars, and policymakers to better advocate for change in the future.

I began the process of writing this book nearly ten years ago, and I have been assisted by many friends, colleagues, students, and mentors along the way. I am deeply indebted to faculty at Stanford University for encouragement and guidance. Jim Fearon has been a wonderful teacher and mentor, and his intense engagement, challenging questions, and careful comments on many drafts of this projectboth during my time at Stanford and for years after I graduatedhave immeasurably strengthened my arguments and ideas. Jeremy Weinstein was the first faculty member I approached with the idea of writing on wartime rape, and his early and avid support was key in helping me to muster the courage to complete this project. Scott Sagan provided helpful comments on drafts and important advice on how to frame the research questions. I am also thankful to David Laitin, who helped me to clarify my early ideas about pursuing wartime rape as a research topic, and to Ken Schultz and Martha Crenshaw for extensive comments on various drafts.

Beyond the faculty at Stanford, I have had the unbelievable fortune of being mentored by Elisabeth Wood at Yale University. She is one of the most generous advisers imaginable and has been giving of both her time and her resources in support of this project. I am so thankful for her thoughtful advice on my work, the profession, and indeed, life in general. I am intensely grateful for the opportunity to have been (and to continue to be) a student of such an inspiring scholar and teacher.

I worked on this manuscript while serving as an assistant professor at two universities and benefited from advice and comments from many of the faculty at both institutions, including Brian Atwood, Sherry Gray, Ron Krebs, Jim Ron, Kathryn Sikkink, and Joe Soss at the University of Minnesota, and Graham Allison, Matt Baum, Bill Clark, Tarek Masoud, Quinton Mayne, Ryan Sheely, and Steve Walt at Harvard University. I am especially grateful to Michael Barnett, my former senior colleague at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at Minnesota, who read a rough draft and offered detailed advice on how to shape the book project.

Extraordinary undergraduate and graduate students, across three universities, provided excellent research assistance in the process of gathering data and writing the case studies. Thank you to Dan Bacon, Jessie Hao, and Emma Welch at Stanford; Sean Fahnhorst, Amelia Kendall, Cardessa Luckett, and Matthew Stenberg at the University of Minnesota; and Ahsan Barkatullah, Nyasha Weinberg, and Hannah Winnink at Harvard. Matthew Valerius at Minnesota and Shelley Liu at Harvard were extremely hardworking and well organized at critical stages, and I am particularly grateful for their efforts.

I am thankful to many people who have offered ideas and commentsboth in writing and through stimulating conversationsthroughout the years, including Brooke Ackerly, Erin Baines, Amanda Blair, Mia Bloom, Charli Carpenter, Jeff Checkel, Kate Cronin-Furman, Christian Davenport, Alex Downes, Lynn Eden, Tanisha Fazal, Jonathan Forney, Page Fortna, Lee Ann Fujii, Scott Gates, Anita Gohdes, Joshua Goldstein, Mala Htun, Valerie Hudson, Macartan Humphreys, Mackenzie Israel-Trummel, Patrick Johnston, Stathis Kalyvas, Paul Kapur, Sabrina Karim, Matthew Kocher, Michele Leiby, Jason Lyall, Meghan Foster Lynch, Andy Mack, Bridget Marchesi, Zoe Marks, Dyan Mazurana, Rose McDermott, Alex Montgomery, Will Moore, Rebecca Neilsen, Fionnuala N Aolin, Ragnhild Nords, Bob Pape, Jeremy Pressman, Andrew Radin, Dani Reiter, Scott Sagan, Beth Simmons, Laura Sjoberg, Inger Skjaelsbk, Alan Stam, Paul Staniland, Jessica Stanton, Scott Straus, Dawn Teele, Kai Thaler, Kimberly Theidon, and Barb Walter. I apologize to those I may have neglected to mention.

I received a large number of helpful comments on the book at various stages from participants in seminars at Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Harvard University, Hebrew University, McGill University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, University of British Columbia, University of California-San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Connecticut, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Uppsala University, and Yale University.

I had a wonderful cohort of colleagues at Stanford whose support and friendship were helpful both to this project and to getting the early stages of our professional lives started, especially Claire Adida, Rikhil Bhavnani, Eduardo Bruera, Matt Carnes, Luke Condra, Jesse Driscoll, Roy Elis, Desha Girod, Oliver Kaplan, Bethany Lacina, Nicholai Lidow, Avital Livny, Neil Malhotra, Yotam Margalit, Victor Menaldo, Natan Sachs, Jake Shapiro, and Alberto Simpser. I am especially appreciative of Jessica Weeks, whose friendship and support have influenced this project and my academic career.

I received generous financial support, without which this work would not have been possible, from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota and the Kennedy School at Harvard University. I also received funding for fieldwork and data collection from the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (SES-0720440); the Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellowship of the United States Institute of Peace; and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University.

At Cornell University Press, Roger Haydon was enthusiastic about this book from its earliest stages and offered expert advice and humorous guidance that sharpened the final manuscript. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback, to the Cornell University Press faculty board of editors for detailed questions and comments, and to Bridget Samburg for assistance with editing.