Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War

@article{citeulike:1086096, abstract = {An influential conventional wisdom holds that civil wars proliferated rapidly with the end of the Cold War and that the root cause of many or most of these has been ethnic and religious antagonisms. We show that the current prevalence of internal war is mainly the result of a steady accumulation of protracted conflicts since the 1950s and 1960s rather than a sudden change associated with a new, post-Cold War international system. We also find that after controlling for per capita income, more ethnically or religiously diverse countries have been no more likely to experience significant civil violence in this period. We argue for understanding civil war in this period in terms of insurgency or rural guerrilla warfare, a particular form of military practice that can be harnessed to diverse political agendas. The factors that explain which countries have been at risk for civil war are not their ethnic or religious characteristics but rather the conditions that favor insurgency. These include poverty-which marks financially and bureaucratically weak states and also favors rebel recruitment-political instability, rough terrain, and large populations.}, author = {Fearon, James D. and Laitin, David D. }, citeulike-article-id = {1086096}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3118222}, journal = {The American Political Science Review}, keywords = {civil-war, conflict, international-relations}, number = {1}, pages = {75--90}, posted-at = {2007-02-03 14:45:19}, priority = {0}, title = {Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3118222}, volume = {97}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1086096 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1086096 N2 - An influential conventional wisdom holds that civil wars proliferated rapidly with the end of the Cold War and that the root cause of many or most of these has been ethnic and religious antagonisms. We show that the current prevalence of internal war is mainly the result of a steady accumulation of protracted conflicts since the 1950s and 1960s rather than a sudden change associated with a new, post-Cold War international system. We also find that after controlling for per capita income, more ethnically or religiously diverse countries have been no more likely to experience significant civil violence in this period. We argue for understanding civil war in this period in terms of insurgency or rural guerrilla warfare, a particular form of military practice that can be harnessed to diverse political agendas. The factors that explain which countries have been at risk for civil war are not their ethnic or religious characteristics but rather the conditions that favor insurgency. These include poverty-which marks financially and bureaucratically weak states and also favors rebel recruitment-political instability, rough terrain, and large populations. IS - 1 JF - The American Political Science Review EP - 90 TI - Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War VL - 97 SP - 75 KW - civil-war KW - conflict KW - international-relations AU - Fearon, James AU - Laitin, David PY - 2003/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3118222 ER -