PRIO Network

Economic Development and Civil War Onset: Unpacking the Association
Led by Helge Holtermann
May 2008 - Dec 2012

This PhD project is a part of the “Disaggregating the Study of Civil War” project.

Supervisors:
First advisor: Håvard Hegre, CSCW and University of Oslo

Additional advisors: Halvard Buhaug and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, CSCW

The vast majority of civil wars occur in economically less developed countries. Several different explanations for this have been suggested, but little has yet been done to assess them empirically. This project uses various empirical approaches to identify important causal mechanisms and their links to development-related conditions: a fieldwork-based case study of rebel mobilization and escalation of violence in Nepal, a mixed-methods study of the spread of insurgency in Nepal, and two global large-N studies looking at the determinants of civil war onset.

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