In the preceding pages, I have sought to shed light on the question of why some insurgents abuse noncombatants and others exhibit restraint and discipline in the use of force by exploring the behavior of rebel groups in Uganda, Mozambique, and Peru. The four organizations, which vary in the initial conditions they confronted, the strategies and tactics they pursued, and the ultimate behaviors they exhibited in relation to civilian populations, invite a controlled comparison that helps to identify key determinants of rebel behavior.

The specific outcome I sought to explain is why the National Resistance Army and the Shining Path's national organization used force systematically and strategically to punish defectors, while Renamo and the Shining Path's regional committee in the Upper Huallaga Valley perpetrated indiscriminate violence, looted villages, and employed much higher levels of coercion in the governance of civilian populations. I began by showing how the access of rebel groups to economic endowments in Mozambique and the jungles of Peru enabled their leaders to make appeals for participation rooted in short-term material interests, while the absence of such endowments in Uganda and the Peruvian highlands forced leaders to develop credible appeals about the private and public benefits that would come with an uncertain victory, to activate community networks and norms of reciprocity, and to build ideological foundations that reflected (and sometimes changed) the interests of potential members.