Greed Model Of Civil War

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Civil war is most commonly a conflict that takes place within the borders of a single country between two sides. The desire of one side might be to overthrow the current regime, take control of a region or area, secede from the current regime, or even change government policies. Civil war is a highly devastating conflict that typically sustains large numbers of casualties, affecting social structures, damaging infrastructure, and consuming the resources of the given country (Hironaka 2005). Since World War II, civil wars have tended to last approximately four years or longer. This is considerably higher than the average time spans prior to WWII (Hironaka 2005). Indeed data shows that Civil Wars have been on the rise, occurring more frequently, …show more content…

In this essay, I will examine the context in which civil wars have taken place since WWII to determine the causes and conditions that bring about their onset. The most common term surrounding civil war is the phrase “greed versus grievance”. Coined by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, the term contrasts motivations for rebellion (2004). Together, they developed a rational choice model of greed-rebellion and contrasts that with a simple grievance model. More clearly stated, civil wars based on identity or civil war motivated by economics. The key question is this: is civil war caused by who people are socially (i.e. ethnicity, religion), or is the onset of civil war propelled by the economic interests of people and groups? Another question one might ask: do ethnic civil wars have the same causal elements as non-ethnic civil …show more content…

The study used criterion for including an insurgency with a minimum of 100 deaths per year and 1,000 for the duration of the conflict. “Grievances” of economic inequality, oppression of civil liberties, and state discrimination against minority groups are far less accurate means of prediction of civil conflict than unstable, impoverished, large states. Rather, Fearon and Laitin argue:
“The main factors determining both the secular trend and the cross-sectional variation in civil violence in this period are not ethnic or religious differences or broadly held grievances but, rather, conditions that favor insurgency. Insurgency is a technology of military conflict characterized by small, lightly armed bands practicing guerrilla warfare from rural base areas. As a form of warfare insurgency can be harnessed to diverse political agendas, motivations, and grievances. The concept is most associated with communist but closely

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