Explaining occurrence of conflicts - clashes of cultures or abundance of resources?

• Main Author: Eriksson, Nathalie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) 2015
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-39476

This thesis examines the explanatory power of two distinct theories, culture-conflict theory and resource abundance-conflict theory, on the occurrence of conflict. With statistical methods this thesis has aimed to investigate which of the two theories in question has the better explanatory power on interstate and intrastate conflicts active in the years 2012-2013. By engaging in the latest conflict data available and a number of country characteristics during the time period 2009-2010, an analytical framework was created. By operationalizing the theories in question into valid variables, a logistic regression analysis on the occurrence versus nonoccurrence of war was conducted. The results indicate that, in accordance with the culture-conflict theory, a higher degree of cultural characteristics (here linguistic diversity) do increase the probability of conflict occurrence. However, for the resource abundance-conflict theory the result showed no statistical significance, leading to the conclusion that the argument that countries with a high abundance of resources are more likely to experience conflict is not supported in this thesis.