This article introduces a static, within-country, game-theoretic model of litigated conflict over fundamental rights. The static model suggests that increased judicial interference in the determination of fundamental rights through democratic elections is never social welfare-increasing, even if...

Two phenomena have been recently utilized to explain conflict onset: greed and grievance. The former reflects elite competition over valuable natural resource rents. The latter argues that grievance fuels conflict. Central to grievance are concepts of interethnic or horizontal inequality....

Two phenomena have been recently utilized to explain conflict onset: greed and grievance. The former reflects elite competition over valuable natural resource rents. The latter argues that grievance fuels conflict. Central to grievance are concepts of interethnic or horizontal inequality....

In the post-Cold War period, the main threat to the United States and other Western nations comes from weak, failed, and conflict-torn states. The viability of military occupation and reconstruction as strategies to deal with these threats is an open issue. I explore two central, but often...

In the post-Cold War period, the main threat to the United States and other Western nations comes from weak, failed, and conflict-torn states. The viability of military occupation and reconstruction as strategies to deal with these threats is an open issue. I explore two central, but often...

The article discusses, first, systems control theory, which tells us how a self-regulating system, for example of social and political peace, should work. Second, it considers the theory of imperfect markets, which tells us just why peace and security frequently fail to be obtained. Third, it...

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...

This article explores the origin and cost of conflict within the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET), a cooperative of 26 member agencies delivering water to nearly 20 million people. Conflict within MET has existed for over 30 years, but increasing population and decreasing...

The proposition that democracies are more peaceful than autocracies has spawned a huge literature. Much of the relevant quantitative research has shown that democracies indeed rarely, if ever, fight each other, although they are not necessarily less bellicose than autocracies in general. This...

NGO's with an interest in peace and development in Africa documented the role of diamonds in conflict while soci scientists were researching and modeling the role of natural resources in long-standing violent conflicts. Journalists described what was happening on the ground. The United Nations...