Governing the Resource-Conflict Nexus: Commodity Management and Internal Violence
Final Report Abstract
Focusing on regulatory and institutional channels through which natural resources may impact conflict and socio-economic development at the local level, our project has contributed to the resource curse theory in two fundamental ways. First, we offer a theoretical framework integrating macro-, meso- and micro-level channels through which natural resource extraction may affect social upheaval and local development. This framework underlines the importance of considering the regulatory context (control rights regimes), local institutional settings (e.g. the degree of political accountability) and the motivation of main actors (companies, government and extractive communities) when analyzing the societal impacts of resource extraction. Based on this approach, we show that state-controlled resource extraction may in fact reduce the risk of social conflict and improve regional wellbeing under certain institutional conditions. Thereby, we qualify common assertions that the resource curse is largely driven by state ownership over natural resources. An additional key theoretical insight of this project is that previous research on the resource curse may suffer from aggregation bias. Previous analyses of the relationship between natural resources and aggregated socio-economic outcomes often confound the influences of multiple factors. The confluence of factors hinders a more rigorous mapping of empirical results to theory and the establishment of causality as it masks a bundle of different and potentially offsetting mechanisms. We show that different ownership arrangements and different institutional settings produce a wide array of local outcomes that are not captured by country-level analyses.
Publications
- 2013. Opening Pandora’s Box? Inclusive Institutions and the Onset of Internal Conflict in Oil-Rich Countries. International Political Science Review 34(4) 392–410
Wegenast, Tim
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0192512112467214) - 2014. Ethnic Fractionalization, Natural Resources and Armed Conflict. Conflict Management and Peace Science 31(4): 432-457
Wegenast, Tim und Matthias Basedau
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0738894213508692) - 2014. Globalization and social transition. In Edward Newman and Karl DeRouen Eds. The Routledge Companion to Civil War. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, pp. 186-196
Schneider, Gerald
- 2014. Peace through globalization and capitalism? Prospects of two liberal propositions. Journal of Peace Research 51(2), 173 – 183
Schneider, Gerald
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343313497739) - 2016. Oil, Natural Gas, and Intrastate Conflict: Does Ownership Matter? International Interactions 42(1): 31-55
Wegenast, Tim
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2015.1046599) - 2017. Capitalist Peace Theory: A Critical Appraisal. In William R. Thompson Ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Empirical International Relations Theory, ed. New York: Oxford University Press (https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.314)
Schneider, Gerald
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.314) - 2017. On Africa's Back? Disaggregating the Social Impact of Chinese-controlled Mineral Extraction. GIGA Working Paper No. 308
Wegenast, Tim, Georg Strüver, Mario Krauser und Juliane Giesen
(See online at https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3128793) - 2017. Ownership Matters: Natural Resources Property Rights and Social Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political Geography 61: 110-122
Wegenast, Tim und Gerald Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.07.007) - 2017. Revisiting the Oil Curse: Does Ownership Matter? World Development 99: 214-229
Khanna, Arpita A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.05.026) - 2018. The Micro-Foundations of the Resource Curse: Oil Ownership and Local Economic Well-Being in Sub- Saharan Africa. Graduate School of Decision Sciences Working Paper No. 2018/02
Wegenast, Tim, Arpita Khanna und Gerald Schneider
