Sealing Borders with Diplomacy: New Data Unpacking International Cooperation to Halt Cross-Border Conflict

Armed conflicts between governments and non-state actors are often waged across borders. Roughly half of all rebel groups rely on safe havens in neighbouring countries. But once there, how are they treated, and to what effect? This brief presents key findings from a new global data collection which records all violent and diplomatic interactions over transnational rebel groups since 1989. To identify main drivers behind anti-rebel cooperation, I unpack the role of diplomacy. I demonstrate a strong increase in bilateral security cooperation over time and find that joint counterinsurgency operations have a higher success rate than unilateral efforts.