Strategic Civil War Aims and the Resource Curse

2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Paine
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
War Aims

Rethinking the Conflict “Resource Curse”: How Oil Wealth Prevents Center-Seeking Civil Wars

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Paine
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Revenue Sources ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
The Government ◽  
Oil Wealth ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Civil War Onset

AbstractA broad literature on how oil wealth affects civil war onset argues that oil production engenders violent contests to capture a valuable prize from vulnerable governments. By contrast, research linking oil wealth to durable authoritarian regimes argues that oil-rich governments deter societal challenges by strategically allocating enormous revenues to enhance military capacity and to provide patronage. This article presents a unified formal model that evaluates how these competing mechanisms affect overall incentives for center-seeking civil wars. The model yields two key implications. First, large oil-generated revenues strengthen the government and exert an overall effect that decreases center-seeking civil war propensity. Second, oil revenues are less effective at preventing center-seeking civil war relative to other revenue sources, which distinguishes overall and relative effects. Revised statistical results test overall rather than relative effects by omitting the conventional but posttreatment covariate of income per capita, and demonstrate a consistent negative association between oil wealth and center-seeking civil war onset.

The War Beyond Italy

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Vanda Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
Western Front ◽  
War Aims ◽  
Overseas Deployment

Italy entered the war to cement its great power status. To convince its Entente partners it was actively contributing to the global struggle, it sent troops first to Albania and later Macedonia, both in pursuit of territorial goals and to support the allies. As the conflict expanded in scope and scale, Italian war aims grew correspondingly: in 1917 a new allied agreement promised Italy territorial compensation in Asia Minor. The St Jean de Maurienne Agreement also enabled Italy to send a tiny expeditionary force to Palestine. By 1918 the need to demonstrate a global commitment led to even more overseas deployment for Italian forces: units were sent to France to the Western Front and to both Murmansk and Manchuria to fight in the Russian Civil War. Despite all these far-flung missions, however, only in Albania was there any intention to remain after the war’s end.

The Rebel Economy in Civil War: Informality, Civil Networks, and Regulation Strategies

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-440
Author(s):  
Yuichi Kubota
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Rebel Governance ◽  
Postwar Reconstruction ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In civil war, rebel groups play a central role as a regulator in the management of civilian economic activities in their territory of control. While previous studies have intensively researched the impact of economic conditions on the war process and dynamics, little attention has been paid to the variation in economic policies adopted by the rebels. This paper conceptualizes the types of regulation policies imposed by the rebels against civilian economic activities and theorizes patterns and particular measures of (non)regulation taken by the rebel groups: formal regulation, deliberate connivance, and laissez-faire. The degree of economic intervention by the rebels is contingent on the extent of economic informalization within the territory and the relative capability of the economic sector. When the sector involves a large portion of the population and is densely networked, its economic potential comes to be perceived by the rebels as a threat to their incumbency. Such a threat compels them to undertake measures of regulation. In contrast, if the level of informalization is low or civilian activities are poorly backed by their network, the threat perceived by the rebels is less, in addition to which, formal regulation against such a loosely organized sector to effectively control civilian activities would be too costly. This paper proposes a number of research agendas on wartime rebel economies and their broader relevance to international relations and political science: mechanisms of rebel economies, rent and the resource curse, the process of civil-rebel relations, and rebel governance. It concludes by advancing implications for policy development; policymakers need to be scrupulous about the effectiveness of (neo)liberal economic policies in conflict-affected societies and to design postwar reconstruction by taking into consideration the legacy of rebel economies.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
War Aims

The Conclusion highlights some of the major themes of the book, specifically the Border South’s enduring penchant for moderate politics and the power of proslavery Unionism. It also discusses the changing direction of the Civil War by the end of 1861. Border South Unionists had built their entire argument for staying in the Union on the need to protect slavery, but by the end of 1861 the war aims of the United States were beginning to include taking bolder action against the institution of slavery. Very few white border southerners embraced this type of war, but by this point their lot had been cast with the United States.

Religionist Rebels & the Sovereignty of the Divine

Daedalus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 147 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Tanisha M. Fazal
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
History Of ◽  
War Aims

Existing categorizations of rebel groups have difficulty classifying some of today's most vexing rebels–those, such as the Islamic State, that reject the Westphalian state system and depend on an almost entirely religious justification for their cause. Such rebel groups often have unlimited war aims and are unwilling to negotiate with the states whose sovereignty they challenge. In this essay, I present the new category of “religionist rebels.” I show that religionist rebels have been present throughout the history of the state system, and explore the particular challenges they pose in the civil war context. Religionist rebels are often brutal in their methods and prosecute wars that are especially difficult to end. But the nature of religionist rebellion also suggests natural limits. Thus, religionist rebels do not, ultimately, present a long-term threat to the state system.

Power Sharing and Democracy in Post-Civil War States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline A. Hartzell ◽  
Matthew Hoddie
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Power Sharing
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