Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Ilayda Onder for winning the Raymond E. Lombra and Roberta Lombra Outstanding Graduate Research Award for her solo-authored International Interactions paper “Signaling Resolve through Credit Claiming.” What explains when militant groups claim attacks? In this study, Onder argues that militant groups are more likely to claim attacks early in the organization’s lifespan and after major blows to reputation like loss of a leader due to leadership decapitation. This is because credit-claiming helps militants signal resolve to a wider audience, thereby burnishing the organization’s reputation. Specifically, Onder argues that claims of militant attacks are costly for organizations because they may be met with government retaliation. However, groups that are younger or have recently suffered the loss of a leader seek to use government retaliation to signal resolve. Onder find support for this proposition using two sets of empirical analyses. First, she shows that claims increase the risk of government retaliation. Then, using a comprehensive data set of 592 groups, Onder demonstrates that militant groups are more likely to claim attacks in the earliest phases of their lifespans and after their leaders are killed/captured. Although civilian victimization and emerging due to splintering are found to be depressing credit claiming, the findings also suggest that (i) groups that only target security forces, (ii) groups that victimize civilians, (iii) groups that emerged independently without known affiliations with existing groups, and (iv) splinter groups all issue fewer claims as they age. These findings help elucidate a largely overlooked dimension of strategic militant behavior. Read the paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050629.2023.2216352.
