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Abstract
How do rebel leaders influence the behavior of their organizations within the constraints of the conflict environment? In this project, I speak directly to this theoretical and em- pirical puzzle. Specifically, I highlight the prewar military experiences of rebel leaders as well as their motives for conflict to explain how they shape the structure and cohesion of their armed organizations. In doing so, I demonstrate that accounting for variation in rebel leadership provides important leverage over the micro-foundations of insurgent decision-making. Evidence for the dissertation comes from a mixed-methodological re- search design. In the first stage, I test the generalizability of my arguments in a series of statistical models, all of which use an original cross-national dataset featuring over 200 rebel leaders from 1989 to 2014. In the second stage, I describe the organizational structure, norms of command, and levels of cohesion that characterized the UNITA insur- gency in the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002). To supplement existing accounts, I acquired data from a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with former UNITA subcommanders and fighters, state military leaders, and non-combatants. I conducted fieldwork research in various research sites throughout Angola in Summer 2018. This study carries important implication for both theory and practice, demonstrating the im- port of accounting for individual agency in the anarchic environment of armed intrastate conflict.