Fueling rebellion: Maritime piracy and the duration of civil war
Abstract
Extant research shows that the presence of natural resources can prolong civil wars. But research also indicates that as rebel groups become stronger, conflicts tend to shorten. These studies suggest an unclear association among the three variables—resources, rebel strength, and conflict duration. If resources increase the fighting ability of rebels, then why do they not shorten conflicts? To understand this relationship, we examine incidents of maritime piracy, which unlike other resources are more clearly exploited by rebel groups rather than states and offer new insight on how this might affect the persistence of civil war. The findings suggest that the use of piracy by weaker rebel groups shortens conflict but prolongs it when exploited by stronger rebel groups. We think our conditional analyses allow us to discern insurgencies driven at least in part by greedy rebels and therefore better illuminate the causal process by which resource wealth prolongs civil war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1177/2233865919833975
Entities
People
- Anup Phayal
- Brandon Prins
- Ursula E. Daxecker
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research Global
- University of Amsterdam
- University of North Carolina Wilmington
- University of Tennessee