Why easily looted resources make wars worse [pdf]

Since the mid-1990s there has been a growing body of research on the causes of civil wars. One of the most surprising and important findings is that natural resources – in particular, oil and gemstones – play a key role in triggering and prolonging these conflicts.

This paper summarizes recent findings on natural resources and civil war. It explains four ways that resources increase the hazard of civil war: by harming a country’s economic performance; by making its government weaker, more corrupt, and less accountable; by giving people who live in resource-rich regions an incentive to form an independent state; and by helping finance rebel movements. These patterns help explain the unusually high rate of civil wars in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with many resource-dependent states.