Fueling rebellion: Maritime piracy and the duration of civil war

Brandon Prins, Anup Phayal and Ursula E Daxecker
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Brandon Prins: University of Tennessee, USA
Anup Phayal: University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA
Ursula E Daxecker: University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

International Area Studies Review, 2019, vol. 22, issue 2, 128-147

Abstract: Extant research shows that the presence of natural resources can prolong civil wars. But research also indicates that as rebel groups become stronger, conflicts tend to shorten. These studies suggest an unclear association among the three variables—resources, rebel strength, and conflict duration. If resources increase the fighting ability of rebels, then why do they not shorten conflicts? To understand this relationship, we examine incidents of maritime piracy, which unlike other resources are more clearly exploited by rebel groups rather than states and offer new insight on how this might affect the persistence of civil war. The findings suggest that the use of piracy by weaker rebel groups shortens conflict but prolongs it when exploited by stronger rebel groups. We think our conditional analyses allow us to discern insurgencies driven at least in part by greedy rebels and therefore better illuminate the causal process by which resource wealth prolongs civil war.

Keywords: Armed conflict; maritime piracy; civil war duration; civil war; rebel group; strength; funding armed conflicts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:intare:v:22:y:2019:i:2:p:128-147

DOI: 10.1177/2233865919833975

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