Why is there variation in how violent nonstate groups interact in armed conflict? Where armed conflict and organized crime converge in unstable regions worldwide, these groups sometimes enter cooperative arrangements with opposing groups. Within the same unstable setting, violent nonstate groups forge stable, long-term relations with each other in some regions, engage in unstable, short-term arrangements in others, and dispute each other elsewhere. Even though such paradoxical arrangements have intensified and perpetuated war, extant theories on group interactions that focus on territory and motivations overlook their concurrent character. Challenging the literature that focuses on conflict dynamics alone, the author argues that the spatial distribution of illicit flows influences how these interactions vary. By mapping cocaine supply chain networks, the author shows that long-term arrangements prevail at production sites, whereas short-term arrangements cluster at trafficking nodes. The article demonstrates through process tracing how the logic of illicit flows produces variation in the groups’ cooperative arrangements. This multiyear, multisited study includes over six hundred interviews in and about Colombia’s remote, war-torn borderlands.

中文翻译：

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武装冲突中非法流动的逻辑

为什么暴力非国家团体在武装冲突中的互动方式存在差异？当武装冲突和有组织犯罪在全球不稳定地区汇聚时，这些团体有时会与对立团体达成合作安排。在同样不稳定的环境中，暴力的非国家团体在一些地区建立稳定的长期关系，在另一些地区进行不稳定的短期安排，并在其他地区相互争执。尽管这种自相矛盾的安排加剧并延续了战争，但现有的关于群体互动的理论，侧重于领土和动机，却忽视了它们的并行特征。作者挑战仅关注冲突动态的文献，认为非法流动的空间分布会影响这些相互作用的变化方式。通过绘制可卡因供应链网络，作者表明长期安排在生产地点占主导地位，而短期安排则集中在贩运节点。文章通过过程追踪展示了非法流动的逻辑如何导致团体合作安排的变化。这项多年期、多地点的研究包括对哥伦比亚偏远、饱受战争蹂躏的边境地区的六百多次采访。