Rebel Natural Resource Exploitation and Conflict Duration

How does natural resource wealth influence the duration of civil conflicts? We theorize that the exploitation of natural resources can strengthen rebels’ “power to resist” the government, but this depends on how rebels earn funding from those resources. Distinguishing between the extortion and smugg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of conflict resolution 2019-03, Vol.63 (3), p.591-616
Main Authors: Conrad, Justin M., Greene, Kevin T., Walsh, James Igoe, Whitaker, Beth Elise
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil war
Conflict
Conflict resolution
Exploitation
Extortion
Flexibility
Funding
Mobility
Money
Natural resources
Oppression
Power
Production
Repression (Defense mechanism)
Smuggling
Wealth
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Summary:How does natural resource wealth influence the duration of civil conflicts? We theorize that the exploitation of natural resources can strengthen rebels’ “power to resist” the government, but this depends on how rebels earn funding from those resources. Distinguishing between the extortion and smuggling of natural resources, we posit that smuggling in particular is more likely to give rebels the flexibility and mobility needed to effectively resist government repression. We then test this proposition empirically using new data that identify not only whether rebels profit from resources but also how they do so. We find that only when rebels smuggle natural resources do civil conflicts last significantly longer. In contrast, conflicts in which rebel groups earn money from extorting natural resource production are not significantly more likely to endure. This finding is of special interest because past work has largely ignored how rebels earn income from natural resources and the implication this distinction might have on conflict processes.
ISSN:0022-0027
1552-8766
DOI:10.1177/0022002718755853