Under Which Circumstances Are Intra-State Conflicts Driven By Resource Curse?
(2011) STVA21 20111Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- We predictably believe that immense natural resources would generate large revenues and wealth within a country. Nevertheless, a lot of evidences show the contrary. Empirical studies find that resource abundance, economic collapse, civil wars, and political instability are well correlated. This indeed creates a complex puzzle as to why natural blessing has not always brought wealth in most resource-rich countries. Instead, it appears to be a curse.
This paper challenges the prevailing understanding of natural resources as a precursor of armed conflict and an obstacle to peace and political stability. This is achieved through a comparative case study between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, testing resource curse theory from... (More) - We predictably believe that immense natural resources would generate large revenues and wealth within a country. Nevertheless, a lot of evidences show the contrary. Empirical studies find that resource abundance, economic collapse, civil wars, and political instability are well correlated. This indeed creates a complex puzzle as to why natural blessing has not always brought wealth in most resource-rich countries. Instead, it appears to be a curse.
This paper challenges the prevailing understanding of natural resources as a precursor of armed conflict and an obstacle to peace and political stability. This is achieved through a comparative case study between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, testing resource curse theory from Paul Collier and Philippe Le Billon’s hypothesis. We come to find that resource curse leads to intra-state conflicts under certain circumstances, basically the colonial influence, geographic characteristics of the country, the stability in its governance, and its relationship with neighboring countries and in the international panel in general. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1967418
- author
- Medic, Natalie LU and Mukiele Bwana, Serge LU
- supervisor
-
- Sara Kalm LU
- organization
- alternative title
- A closer look on the abundance of resources in the DRC and Ghana
- course
- STVA21 20111
- year
- 2011
- type
- L2 - 2nd term paper (old degree order)
- subject
- keywords
- Resource curse, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana
- language
- English
- additional info
- We give great thanks to Lena Scherman, for the interview 2011-05-04.
- id
- 1967418
- date added to LUP
- 2011-06-20 11:08:40
- date last changed
- 2011-06-20 11:08:40
@misc{1967418, abstract = {{We predictably believe that immense natural resources would generate large revenues and wealth within a country. Nevertheless, a lot of evidences show the contrary. Empirical studies find that resource abundance, economic collapse, civil wars, and political instability are well correlated. This indeed creates a complex puzzle as to why natural blessing has not always brought wealth in most resource-rich countries. Instead, it appears to be a curse. This paper challenges the prevailing understanding of natural resources as a precursor of armed conflict and an obstacle to peace and political stability. This is achieved through a comparative case study between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, testing resource curse theory from Paul Collier and Philippe Le Billon’s hypothesis. We come to find that resource curse leads to intra-state conflicts under certain circumstances, basically the colonial influence, geographic characteristics of the country, the stability in its governance, and its relationship with neighboring countries and in the international panel in general.}}, author = {{Medic, Natalie and Mukiele Bwana, Serge}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Under Which Circumstances Are Intra-State Conflicts Driven By Resource Curse?}}, year = {{2011}}, }