The article compares civil strife in the public arena to labor strikes in the private arena. Both are predicated on incomplete information (both sides believing they can "win," when one – and possibly both – must "lose"). Reasons for conflict, especially in Africa, include the rent-based...

The article reports results of an empirical investigation into trade, openness, and domestic conflict for several Latin American countries. It addresses two main issues: (1) whether variations in trade openness affect the likelihood of the onset of domestic conflict and (2) once initiated, how...

Lundin Petroleum spent over twelve years exploring for oil in Sudan, Ethiopia, and in Kenya. During this period it was faced with an armed conflict in Sudan, the risk of rebel activity in Ethiopia, and tribal clashes in Kenya. This meant the company had to consider operations in remote countries...

Analyzing governments’ expenditure when it comes to military engagement is a challenging task. As governments are neither transparent nor eager to come forward with the necessary information, researchers make a lot of assumptions that require extensive justification. This article details a...

The conflict-trade paradigm has been dominated by the liberal and realist schools of thought, which try to explain how and why trade affects conflict and cooperation. While the liberal point of view predicts a positive effect of levels of trade on cooperation, realists counter by arguing a...

Recent work has suggested the foreign-led reconstruction effort carried out in Afghanistan and Iraq can mitigate violence because it helps win the “hearts and minds” of local people. For the case of Afghanistan, we show there is no evidence behind such an assertion. Analyzing unique data on...

A viable peace is one that comes about naturally and persists without the need for outside intervention. At least since Baron de Montesquieu’s statement that “peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has the...

A viable peace is one that comes about naturally and persists without the need for outside intervention. At least since Baron de Montesquieu’s statement that “peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has the...

The article reports results of an empirical investigation into trade, openness, and domestic conflict for several Latin American countries. It addresses two main issues: (1) whether variations in trade openness affect the likelihood of the onset of domestic conflict and (2) once initiated, how...

The concept of benefit-sharing, as employed in the Inter-SEDE model, analyzes potential security, economic development, and environmental-related benefits to sharing the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris river basins. The article finds that Iraq scores fairly high on security and...