Until recently, a long-standing, impressively large, and growing literature on the effects of military expenditure on economic growth appeared to have failed to result in a scholarly consensus. But the availability of 20 more years of data since the thawing of the cold war has helped researchers...

This is a critical review of the empirical literature on the relationship between violence and economic growth in Colombia, an interesting case study for social scientists studying violence, conflict, crime, and development. We argue that despite the rapid development of this literature and the...

This is a critical review of the empirical literature on the relationship between violence and economic growth in Colombia, an interesting case study for social scientists studying violence, conflict, crime, and development. We argue that despite the rapid development of this literature and the...

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...

That military expenditure and conflict have adverse consequences for development is unsurprising but important. The policy challenge is to reduce them. I have suggested that substantial components of military expenditure could be reduced without jeopardizing security interests. Military...

Can a country achieve its development goals or, at least, its economic growth goals when it faces forty years of war? Angola's case serves as a paradigmatic example to answer this question. From 1961 to 1974, Angolans opposed Portuguese colonial rule by violent, revolutionary struggle. But from...

The article discusses some of the economic effects of war in northern Mozambique. It indicates how the historical and structural features of the economy of northern Mozambique restricted post-war reconstruction and post-war poverty alleviation. These features include the dominance of only a few...

The greatest contribution that economics can make to banishing war lies in creating conditions that help keep the peace, especially in the long run. The problem is to identify the set of conditions that will generate positive incentives for nations to keep the peace and work out a set of...

The article presents a history of South Africa's arms industry. It charts the creation of Armscor, the post-apartheid breaking up of its procurement and production roles to form the current arms producer, Denel, and the even more recent restructuring of the industry. It is a story that shows the...

An assessment of the employment of mercenaries in Afghanistan gives mixed results. U.S. armed forces appear to have been happy with the Afghan Security Forces and ad hoc militias and only replaced them because of political reasons or because they felt that they were no longer needed. By...