Publication

This study applies a temporal perspective to the study of rebels’ motivation in order to examine how this is affected by the changing surroundings throughout a civil war. By linking theory on greed and grievance with insights from motivational psychology, the author argues that rebels are motivated by both reason and passion, but at different times. More precisely, he argues that passion triggers civil war while reason sustains it. A re-examination of two critical cases – the Liberian and Salvadoran civil wars – supports this argument.