How State Presence Leads to Civil Conflict

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200272095706
Author(s):  
Luwei Ying
Keyword(s):  
Census Data ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Power ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Province Level ◽  
Local Leaders

Political scientists and policy-makers have long argued that state weakness leads to civil conflict while enhancing state power helps prevent violence. Why, then, has increased state capacity worldwide recently coincided with more civil conflicts? This study argues that enhanced state presence at the sub-national level—a symptom of growing state capacity—may induce violent resistance from the established non-state powers such as local leaders and communities in the short term. Empirically, I conduct two analyses, one at the province level and the other at the ethnic group level. To measure state presence, I use accuracy of census data in the first analysis and global ground transportation data in the second analysis. Results demonstrate that increased state presence triggers civil conflict, particularly in the first five years of such increasing state presence, and this effect is stronger in remote and ethnically heterogeneous regions. Evidence also suggests that ethnic groups settled in peripheral regions are prominent resisters to state penetration. This paper thus expands prior understanding of the role of state power in civil conflicts.

scholarly journals Witness protection in the criminal justice system of the Baham

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
David Baxter Bakibinga
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
National Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
The Government ◽  
Aid Policy

Witness protection is now firmly entrenched in the modern criminal justice systems especially in jurisdictions dealing with organized and violent crime. The decision by the government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas to enact legislation in respect to procedural and non-procedural measures for protection of witnesses is commendable, given that violent and organized crime is rife in the country. This article highlights the basic tenets of witness protection and the legal framework, both at the international and national level. It also addresses the role of key duty bearers in the process of witness protection. Furthermore the procedural and non-procedural measures taken by law enforcement officers in The Bahamas are explored. And lastly, the challenges encountered in the implementation of the witness protection measures in The Bahamas are examined. This is intended to aid policy makers, advisers and those entrusted with decision making, like parliamentarians, to devise means and ways to eradicate and/or mitigate challenges faced in the implementation of witness protection measures in The Bahamas.

Consulting Stakeholders?

2011 ◽  
pp. 328-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleftheria Vasileiadou
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Stakeholder Consultation ◽  
Eu Energy Policy ◽  
Linear Problems ◽  
Modes Of Governance

The participation of stakeholders in policy formation has increased, based on the recognition that policy-makers today face increasingly complex and non-linear problems, requiring flexible modes of governance. In this chapter, I analyse the role of formalised stakeholder consultations in EU energy policy and their potential of integrating climate change issues. More specifically, I empirically investigate how stakeholder consultation processes influenced the formation of the EU Energy Communication of 2007. The analysis shows that there was limited diversity of participation in consultations, as actors from civil society or NGOs were not included. Moreover, the role of scientific knowledge in the consultations was minimal. Actors at the regional and sub-national level are generally ignored in such formalised consultation processes. Recommendations for EU policymakers and organisers of consultations are provided.

Political Resources and Divergent Court Empowerment in China: A Subnational Comparison

Modern China ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 629-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Wang ◽  
Wenting Liang
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Causal Sequence ◽  
Subnational Comparison ◽  
Local Leaders

The cities of Guiyang and Kunming are known among legal scholars, practitioners, and policy makers for hosting two of China’s earliest specialized environmental tribunals, following serious water contamination in the two cities. However, the judicialization of environmental protection appears to be relatively nominal in Kunming and substantial in Guiyang. Why? We contend that, at a critical juncture, different political resources available to local leaders—including their past networks and experiences—led them to implement different strategies to deal with these crises. Under similar conditions, different political resources thus led to divergent outcomes of judicial empowerment. We use process tracing to describe the causal sequence in the adoption and application of policies of judicialization. Whether courts are empowered to operate proactively or conservatively is the result of the strategies of local actors in response to the policy agenda set forth by political leaders and constrained by political leaders’ available political resources. This study contributes to existing theories of court empowerment in authoritarian regimes that have largely relied on national-level or socioeconomic factors. Through a controlled subnational comparison in China, this article provides an alternative theory of divergent practices of court empowerment.

scholarly journals Civil War and Female Empowerment

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200272098340
Author(s):  
Ingrid Vik Bakken ◽  
Halvard Buhaug
Keyword(s):  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Female Empowerment ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Sustained Effort ◽  
Gender Specific

Recent research has directed attention to the transformative potential of war for female empowerment. As a disruptive shock, armed conflict can create a window of opportunity for advancing the societal role of women. We complement this research agenda by looking at how conflict severity and termination condition the outcomes for women in the aftermath of civil conflict. We expect that both level of violence and mode of resolution affect subsequent female empowerment, where severe conflicts ending by a negotiated settlement have the greatest transformative potential. Consistent with expectations, we find that post-conflict improvements in female empowerment occur primarily after high-intensity civil conflicts. However, subsequent tests reveal that this effect is driven largely by conflicts terminated by peace agreements. The greatest improvement in female empowerment is seen when peace agreements have gender-specific provisions. These results support calls for a sustained effort toward mainstreaming gender issues in conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.

scholarly journals Supporting rebels and hosting refugees: Explaining the variation in refugee flows in civil conflicts

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332198978
Author(s):  
Oguzhan Turkoglu
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Different Sources

Why do some countries host more refugees than others? Previous research has focused on the role of geographical, political, and economic determinants, and little attention has been paid to civil conflict dynamics. In this article, I examine how a host country’s support for rebel groups may affect the number of refugees that it accommodates. Countries that support rebels host a higher number of refugees than others, as accommodating refugees can be the continuation of that support and help rebel groups in their armed struggle. By hosting people, countries may offer a sanctuary from which rebels can operate some of their insurgent activities. Rebel groups can exploit these camps for recruitment, training, and benefiting from the main services such as health care. In addition, when rebels operate in host countries, these countries may monitor, impact, or even direct the strategies of insurgent groups. Analysis of refugee flows between 1968 and 2011 suggests that countries which support rebel groups host twice as many refugees as others. Results are robust to various model specifications, two different sources for the main explanatory variable, matching analysis, and additional checks. Findings of this article highlight the importance of conflict dynamics in explaining the variation in refugee flows.

The Short-Term Effects of Military Interventions in Civil Conflict

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-377
Author(s):  
Patrick M. Regan
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Negotiated Settlements

In this article, I discuss the implications of thinking about conflict management in terms of long and short-term outcomes. In particular, I focus on the role of third-party interventions in civil conflicts and how military interventions can affect the terms of negotiated settlements. I argue that military interventions can be effective if you judge success in terms of short-term outcomes, but even then, there are more or less-effective strategies. After articulating different metrics for considering short-term success, I outline a framework for thinking about how the intervention strategy will influence the duration of a civil conflict, in part by linking battlefield conditions to negotiated outcomes. I conclude by discussing some of the implications of linking military interventions to diplomatic efforts when negotiating a settlement.

scholarly journals The Joint Effect of International and Domestic-Level State Capacity on Civil War Risk

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Zorzeta Bakaki
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Joint Effect ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
The Government ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
Domestic Level

This article examines the role of international and domestic-level factors for strengthening states’ capacity. State failure enhances insecurity, since there is not sufficient agency or institutions to provide adequate security guarantees and to put into operation established rules. When the government is unable to address grievances stemming from such insecurity, armed conflict becomes more likely. Links with external institutions and domestic-level capacity that increases prosperity prevent insurgencies and promote stability, however. To this end, this research develops a new theory linking state capacity and the international and domestic-level factors to internal conflict. Empirically, this study examines the risk of civil conflict onset, focusing on the combined effect of international (political globalisation) and domestic-level (GDP per capita) state capacity as the main driving force. The results show that the joint effect of these factors has a negative impact on civil war risk, which is significantly and substantially important.

Negotiations over Transboundary Air Pollution: The Case of Europe

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
National Level ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Task Forces ◽  
Transboundary Air Pollution ◽  
National Environmental ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Main Influence

AbstractThe Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) has a history covering about thirty years. Over time, NGOs, international and national, environmental, commercial and industrial, have had various degrees of impact on preparations for and the negotiations of its seven substantive Protocols. A special case is the role of science in the CLRTAP process. Can scientific communities or small groups of scientists that have been involved be characterized as NGOs? The answer depends on their roles in the different groups and task forces established under the CLRTAP. This article argues that NGO influence has been more important at the national level in the democratic processes leading to the development of national positions than in their influence during the actual international negotiations. The main influence of NGOs lies in making policy makers aware of environmental problems. There are limitations to NGO participation in the intergovernmental negotiation process, although the scientific NGO input has become a necessary element and strongly influences negotiation outcomes. NGO development towards science has also created an interdependence between the scientific community and policymakers.

Civil Conflict and Development

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håvard Hegre
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between civil conflict and development. After outlining definitions of conflict and development, it considers a number of explanations of why they are empirically related. The extent to which conflict, such as civil war, is due to development is discussed, along with how conflict affects development. The article then describes the routes through which conflict reduces development, namely destruction, disruption, diversion, and dis-saving. It also considers why development reduces the risk of conflict, paying particular attention to poverty as motivation for conflict, opportunities for violence entrepreneurs, poor state capacity, decreased lootability in diversified economies, higher costs to violence in densely interacting societies, indirect effect through political institutions, and education and the cognitive ability to maintain peaceful relations. The article concludes by assessing future prospects for the conflict–development linkage, as well as the role of development in reducing incidences of armed conflict worldwide.

scholarly journals STATE-BUILDING AND NON-STATE CONFLICTS IN AFRICA

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alagaw Ababu Kifle
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
State Building ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Subsaharan Africa ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Contemporary state building intervention in weak states is based on the assumption that once a capable state is instituted, it will be able to ensure peace. Extant literature on state capacity and civil war onset tends to confirm this assumption. However, the relation between state capacity and the onset of non-state conflict is not adequately examined in this literature. This article, which is based on findings from research undertaken by the author at the African Leadership Centre, aims to extend the existing knowledge on state capacity and civil conflict by examining the relation between state capacity and non-state conflict in  subSaharan Africa using mixed methodological approaches. A statistical analysis of the correlation between three aspects of state capacity and non-state conflict is supplemented with a detailed qualitative analysis of selected states that experience non-state conflicts and those that did not. State capacity is dissected into state effectiveness, legitimacy and monopoly of the means of coercion. The result reveals that the legitimacy and effectiveness of the state are negatively correlated with nonstate conflicts in a statistically significant way. However, the qualitative analysis indicates that the role of state capacity in reducing non-state conflicts should not be over-stated. The occurrence or absence of nonstate conflicts is influenced by the interplay of multi-faceted factors related to the level of resource scarcity, the strength of customary dispute resolution mechanisms, patterns of intercommunity interaction, nature of state policies and political actors' stake in a conflict.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document