How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases
Publisher: International Organization Foundation
Author(s): Michael L. Ross
Date: 2004
Topics: Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Peace Agreements
Recent studies have found that natural resources and civil war are highly correlated.Yet the causal mechanisms behind the correlationare not well under- stood, in part because data on civil wars is scarce and of poor quality. In this article I examine thirteen recent civil wars to explore the mechanisms behind the resource- conflict correlation. I describe seven hypotheses about how resources may influence a conflict, specify the observable implications of each, and report which mechanisms can be observed in a sample of thirteen civil wars in which natural resources were "most likely" to have played a role. I find that two of the most widely cited causal mechanisms do not appear to be valid; that oil, non fuel minerals, and drugs are causally linked to conflict, but legal agricultural commodities are not; and that resource wealth and civil war are linked by a variety of mechanisms, including several that others had not identified.