I. Historical trends in external support in civil wars

Chapter:

4. External support in civil wars and other armed conflicts

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2016

Author(s):

Ian Davis

Contemporary armed conflicts, such as those in Syria and Ukraine, illustrate that civil wars are rarely just a matter of internal affairs.² The categorization of conflicts as ‘internal’ has long been questioned by scholars and it is now becoming a well-established fact that most conflicts experience some type of external support.³ External support can be defined as a unilateral intervention by a third-party government (or groups of governments) in an internal armed conflict in favour of either the government or the opposition movement involved in that conflict.⁴ Support can include direct participation by military and security personnel as well as more indirect forms of aid, such as the provision of intelligence, logistics, money, sanctuary or training. This definition excludes other forms of third-party intervention, such as mediation or peacekeeping, since the aim of such activities is most often to stop the fighting rather than to help a certain party achieve victory.⁵