In this paper, I will analyze the causes of civil war and deduce the various reasons that conflict are likely to occur in areas across the globe, Furthermore, the emphasis will be placed on relating the relevant articles from class to the discussion and attempting to gain insight into what causes these conflicts Various factors will be analyzed and the involvement of insurgents and government powers will also be analyzed, as well as their motivations in each situation The aim of this paper is to support various concepts that have been introduced in the class readings with theoretical concepts from established sources within the field. Furthermore, this paper will seek to introduce concepts to provide associations for these claims.
Each of the four readings present various perspectives and insights into the causes of civil war and what brings about such reactions in people across the world. There are different focuses in each paper but the central theme is essentially in classifying and understanding what simply causes civil war. In “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel? New Data and Analysis” by Lars- Erik Cederman, Andreas Wimmer and Brian Min, the proposition that is brought forth essentially posits that conflicts that generate civil wars are often caused by a collapse of state governments. In the absence of any unified state body, political violence may arise from conflicts surrounding land ascertaining or political dominance and ethnic conflicts that result in civil wars are a direct result of states being too weak to suppress any uprising by locals.
In “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War” by James D Fearon and David D, Laitin, similar undertakings are had into understanding the causes of civil war with notably similar results Fearon and Laitin argue that conflicts surrounding civil war often do not exhibit traits of simplistic ethnic or religious conflict as their sole factort. Rather, there are a variety of reasons that conflict occurs and civil war is more likely to happen in a country that is set up for this type of insurgency based on factors such as poverty, large populations, political instability and overall roughness of the terrain. As evidenced by this study, it is often these factors that allow the platform for rebellion to occur so quickly in the modern era, as evident by data that these two collected on various nations that have had these types of conflicts arise since the Cold War.
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The article “What Do We Know About Natural Resources and Civil War?” by Michael L. Ross suggests that civil war arises from a relationship that the warring country has with natural resources. The study suggests that there are four regularities overall that help to shed light on how civil war occurs: first, oil has a significant impact on the likelihood that war will occur, ‘lootable’ commodities such as drugs orjewels do not make conflict more likely to occur, but pre-existing conflict are often lengthened and enhanced by these factors, there is also no direct link between agricultural commodities and the chances of civil war occurring; and lastly, the association between the primary forms of commodities in a country and civil war is not extensive.
Lastly, “Exogenous Shocks, Foreign Aid, and Civil War“ by Burcu Savun and Daniel C. Tirone suggests that economic factors has a large hand in the overall negative effects which directly contribute to a rise in the risk of civil war in these countries. There is a positive effect on the likelihood of civil war when foreign aid is introduced but if a nation is experiencing these factors in general, the likelihood for conflict is increased As is evidenced by the conflict in Aleppo and in regards to the Syrian civil war overall, many of the above conditions outline reasons that this conflict has ballooned so tremendously and why it is still occurring now. As the article “Syria’s civil war: Army pounds Aleppo with air raids“ by Al Jazeera notes, the increase in air raids and bombings in Aleppo has been significant in recent weeks. Furthermore, as Syrian air raids have risen, the ability of the country to provide relief aid to its citizens has diminished.
Fighting began in mid-2012 between government entities and rebel forces over control of the commercial and industrial hub, and the resources that this area has, Supply lines to and from the city were taken control of by the rebels who have struggled to hold them against government officials for years. This conflict is a primary example of one of the principal distinctive factors for why conflict occurs, according to the article “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel?” Statistical research shows that wars are likely the result of a weak national government being uniformly unable to suppress the rebellions of warlords and insurgents, especially in areas where natural resources are abundant. In this case, the resources in Syria are oil and the insurgents’ motives are often to hold these resources so that they are not readily available for invading countries or their own domestic leadership.
Furthermore, the political stability in a nation such as Syria and the government’s capacity to regulate the actions of extremists and insurgents can be seen as a direct result of the rise of these groups. This is supported by recent actions in which various governments such as Russia have become actively involved in the area, providing such assets as military intervention. Another factor worth considering is that of poverty, in regards to prominent reasons that conflicts arise and flare up in nations such as Syria, In the article “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War,” the primary reason that the authors argue civil war occurs in many nations across the globe is poverty. The article argues that, given data exemplified by 45 examined civil wars since the year 1960, the authors have found that measures of “objective grievance“ were not adequate predictors when compared to economic variables and that these variables in themselves provide rebels with opportunities more than simple grievance.
In these countries, it is often the situation that rebels position themselves to capitalize on the instability that is brought forth by poverty and the inner turmoil that is likely to ensue in the impoverished regions of the countries in question, Insurgency tends to thrive in these impoverished regions, according to the study in this article, because of the opportunity that poverty gives to rebels who are willing to capitalize on the potential for instability. Furthermore, the overall notion surrounding these areas is that they are typically weaker in state institutions and influence, thus allowing a platform for rebellion to occur rapidly. Typically, rebels hope to secure areas of political importance and social magnitude when taking these areas and nothing is quite as important in the modern era as oil and other natural resources such as oil.
As a result, such as according to “What Do We Know About Natural Resources and Civil War?,” it is evident that rebel groups often materialize to hold assets involving oil in these countries due to the importance that holding such a valuable asset has in destabilizing the local government. It is likely that such a conflict as this will result in further destabilization from the evidence proposed, as is typically evident in these types of conflicts in general.
This is typically due to the fact that, as one insurgent group falls, it is likely that the conditions to appease similar groups have not occurred and in turn will result in the rise of another group, which further perpetuates the cycle of collapse. What should be taken from this discussion is the understanding of conflict not simply as an ethnic or religious battle, but as a complex undertaking involving various social and economic factors. Civil war conflicts, as supported by the evidence from the readings, often involve a wide range of factors Among these are social pressures, economic instability, the availability of natural resources and weak infrastructure. According to the article by Al Jazeera, many of these factors are present and help to support the proposed factors that are associated with the various readings from class.
