The two volumes of Understanding Civil War build upon the World Bank's prior research on conflict and violence, particularly on the work of Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, whose model of civil war onset has sparked much discussion on the relationship between conflict and development in what came...

Contrary to popular belief, Africa's civil wars are not due to its ethnic and religious diversity. Using recently developed models of the overall incidence of civil wars in 161 countries between 1960 and 1999, we draw lessons with special reference to Africa, showing that the relatively higher...

VOLUME 1: AfricaVOLUME 2: Europe, Central Asia, and Other Regions"This is a superb manuscript, and one that will become a standard reference in the field for students of conflict and civil war." -Robert Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University The two volumes of...