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Sometimes rape is a weapon of war. This chapter looks at rape and other forms of sexual violence that form a tactic and strategy of war and examines how it relates to the politico-economic conditions of conflict and the motives of perpetrators. The chapter categorizes those forms of sexual violence perpetrated systematically, publicly, on a mass scale as a “weapon of war” when this violence can be linked to the strategic ends of an armed group. Within the politico-economic conditions of war, this type of sexual violence is most commonly seen in economically motivated civil conflicts. This chapter examines how the international political economy of contemporary civil wars has informed the strategic use of violence, using the case studies of Sierra Leone and Angola to explore the relationship between economically-motivated warfare and the perpetration of mass, systematic sexual violence toward material ends.

Building on the conceptual framework offered by this book, this chapter develops a preliminary typology of wartime sexual violence that is based on the politico-economic conditions of war. This chapter uncovers specific patterns in the perpetration of sexual violence across different conflicts, which are directly related to the politico-economic determinants of the armed conflicts. While sociocultural context and individual motivations play an undeniable role, this typology focuses on the structural level to examine how the political economic determinants of war shape both the objective of the armed group and the forms and functions of sexual violence perpetrated by the group.

The ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provides a useful case for examining the political economy of sexual violence where this violence does not appear to be perpetrated out of individual motivations or along sociocultural ethnic divisions. The use of sexual violence in the DRC represents one of the few examples of “rape as a weapon of war.”, whereby the politico-economic determinants of the ongoing conflict in the eastern regions of the country are attributable to the forms and functions of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated therein. This chapter examines the instrumental use of sexual and gender-based violence as a form of political violence—resulting in the emergence of new forms of political legitimacy, access to and rights to accessing wealth, as well as means of accumulating and distributing goods.