 In the last 15 years, the number of armed conflicts around the world has more than doubled. The number of state and non-state groups fighting in them has multiplied, with some conflicts involving hundreds of different groups. In every case, civilians bear the brunt of the armed violence. The ICRC tries to convince soldiers and fighters to fight in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law. These try to limit the destructive forces of war. To get better at this, the ICRC launched a two-year study exploring who and what might influence soldiers or fighters from different types of forces or groups to act with restraint. Here, restraint means behavior indicating intentional actions to limit the use of violence. You can see this when an armed force or group tenses its pattern of violence and no longer attacks people or structures that it had previously targeted. We can learn many things about an armed force or group by analyzing their patterns of violence, the type of violence used against whom and with what frequency. This information can help the ICRC figure out who or what encourages restraint and who to talk to in order to promote it. But sources of restraint differ based on an armed group's or force's organizational structure. Take hierarchical armed forces and groups. These have obvious signs of discipline, like uniforms and saluting. The main source of restraint is the top-down. Rules are transmitted through ideology and doctrine, reinforced through training and enforced through threat of punishment. The more intense the training, the more closely the rules are followed on the battlefield. Now, take decentralized armed groups, which are the majority today. Although often fighting under one name, these groups are usually alliances of smaller individual groups, each with its own commander. Overall, the more an armed group is decentralized, the more its sources of behavioral influence are external to the group. Their behavior is influenced by a complex combination of political, business, traditional and spiritual sources. To understand this system of influence, we need to look deeper at the norms and values that shape communities. These local norms and values can be used to translate or illustrate standards of behavior set by IHL. Doing this would make groups more likely to show restraint, as its practice becomes part of the group's identity. All of this helps the ICRC to fulfill its mandate of protecting and assisting those affected by conflict and violence worldwide.