A Dangerous Liaison? Ethnicity, Natural Resources and Civil Conflict Onset

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According to the literature on conflict, ethnicity and natural resources are under certain conditions risks for intra-state conflict. Theoretically, the combination of ethnic diversity and resources should be particularly dangerous as both together may generate strong motives for uprising and increase an ethnic groups’ insurgency capacity, by providing financial means and recruitment pools. However, studies on ethnicity and resources have operated independently of each other thus far. Moreover, previous research has investigated causal mechanisms only at a rather aggregate level. This project unifies both literature strands and seeks to investigate the precise mechanisms that may lead to violence in the presence of both resources and ethnic diversity. Methodologically, the project engages in geo-referencing below the national level and combines macro-, meso- and micro-perspectives in a three-level analysis. At the macro-level, a global database will be created that identifies overlapping locations of resources, relevant and deprived ethnic groups and conflict, in order to uncover general patterns. At the meso-level, the project will engage in a within-country comparison of two pertinent country cases (Bolivia and Nigeria) in which the presence of resources and relevant ethnic groups, as well as the levels of violence, vary across subnational units. At the micro-level, extensive field work in two carefully-selected local sites per country will aim at uncovering the exact mechanisms by which the combination of ethnicity and resources leads to violence or not.