Insurgent Assassinations: A Theoretical Analysis of Targeted Killing in Chechnya and Dagestan

Abstract

2 Abstract Assassinations are some of the least understood methods of violence used in insurgencies. This paper discusses the potential drivers for the use of assassinations by insurgents, to argue that grievances, structural inequalities and religious ideology are the most prominent drivers for assassinations. The discussion is developed through a comparative case study of insurgents in Chechnya and Dagestan using descriptive statistics, to critically assess the saliency of diverging theoretical explanations for what drives the use of assassinations and variations in target type and methods used. Cultural, structural and ideological explanations are found to be the most effective at explaining this phenomenon.