Megan Becker, Associate Teaching Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California, presents her research on the pathways through which natural resources may be linked to conflict. This event is part of the International Security Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for International Security.
What are the causal pathways through which natural resources are linked to civil conflict? Ross (2004) evaluates 10 causal pathways across 13 conflicts to offer the most comprehensive answer to date. However, nearly 20 years later, all 13 conflicts have ended, and more sources are available, motivating the question: Would the findings hold if replicated today? We employ a new explicit standard approach to replicate Ross’ 13 cases twice: first, using his original 78 sources and second, employing a more up-to-date set of conflict end-dates and over 500 sources. Most findings (75%) hold, while 25% don’t. We find stronger evidence for Ross’ claim that looting resources is linked to longer conflicts and that resources motivate government repression. However, we also overturn some of his key claims, by demonstrating that resources do, in fact, affect conflict onset by funding rebel start-up costs and generating grievances amongst the population.
Speaker
Megan Becker is a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Security and an Associate Teaching Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California and a co-PI of the Security and Political Economy Lab. Her primary research interests are who fights and what funds civil war. While at the Hertie School, she will work on a series of papers exploring how natural resource wealth fuels internal conflict. Professor Becker's other work considers how to make research methods more transparent and how to make research methods education and experience more accessible to people from all backgrounds. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego.
