Honor Among Thieves: Understanding Rhetorical and Material Cooperation Among Violent Nonstate Actors

Abstract Cooperation among militant organizations contributes to capability but also presents security risks. This is particularly the case when face substantial repression from state. As a consequence, for cooperation emerge and persist it most valuable, groups must have means of committing even incentives defect are high. We posit that shared ideology plays this role by providing community monitoring, authority structures, trust, transnational networks. test theory using new, expansive, time-series data on relationships between 1950 2016, which we introduce here. find share an ideology, especially religion, they more likely sustain material in state repression. These findings contextualize expand upon research demonstrating connections violent nonstate actors strongly shape their tactical strategic behavior.