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Replication Data for: Restoring Legitimacy: Public Diplomacy Campaigns during Civil Wars

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Restoring Legitimacy: Public Diplomacy Campaigns during Civil Wars
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZD6LKN
 
Creator Mattiacci, Eleonora
Jones, Benjamin T
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Governments involved in civil wars often gain a strategic advantage from intentionally killing civilians. However, targeting civilians might also tarnish perceptions of the government’s legitimacy abroad, increasing the risk of foreign actors punishing the government. How can governments attempt to navigate this dilemma? Focusing on the United States as one of the most frequent interveners in civil wars after the Cold War, we examine one particular strategy governments might employ: public diplomacy campaigns (PDCs) targeting both the public and elites in the United States. PDCs can help governments restore perceptions of their legitimacy abroad in the face of civilian targeting by mobilizing coalitions of support and undermining critics. When governments can achieve plausible deniability for civilian deaths via militias, PDCs enable governments to reduce the damage to foreign perceptions of their legitimacy. When rebels engage in civilian targeting, PDCs allow governments to publicize these actions. We compile data PDCs in the United States by governments engaged in civil wars. Our results have important implications for current understandings of civil war combatant foreign policies, foreign interventions, and international human rights laws and norms.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Civil War, Civilian Victimization, Legitimacy, Public Diplomacy Campaigns
 
Contributor Prins, Brandon