Organizations Fuel Revolutions: FORGE Dataset Reveals Hidden Rebel Roots

Scholars have long studied rebellion's roots—from societal breakdowns to individual motivations—but overlooked a key piece: the role of preexisting organizations in forming armed rebels. This gap stems from missing data on rebel origins across conflicts.

Introducing FORGE, a new cross-national dataset covering 1946–2011 intrastate conflicts. It meticulously tracks "parent" organizations and their transformation into active rebel groups during civil wars—offering previously unavailable insights.

The FORGE Dataset

• Provides comparable data on parent organization prevalence across 65 years of conflict
• Documents the specific processes leading to rebel group formation in each case
• Tracks these origins from pre-conflict through post-war periods

This resource fundamentally changes how we view civil war dynamics. It allows researchers to explore:

• How legitimate organizations become politicized or militarized
• The structural characteristics of early-stage rebel groups
• Pre-existing social networks that influence mobilization decisions
• Historical patterns in rebel foundation across Africa and beyond

Scholarly Impact

FORGE offers unprecedented tools for understanding civil war origins. By analyzing parent organizations, scholars can now examine the pre-war conditions fostering rebellion more systematically than ever before.