Civil War and State Formation: Exploring Linkages and Potential Causality

In: swisspeace Working Paper, Band 3/2016

Abstract

This working paper offers a perspective on contemporary
debates about state-formation, contributing to
ongoing thinking about the role of conflict and specifically
civil war in the emergence of different kinds of
political orders.
Based on a reconceptualization of the likely nature
of the linkages between civil war and political order,
the working paper develops a set of potential causal
pathways linking common conditions of civil war
to likely wartime changes in the political settlement
and state institutions. In doing so, it aims to provide
an organising framework for future research to explore
conditions under which different pathways predominate
and aims to offer an analytical tool to policy makers
and researchers to consider potential impacts and
consequences of violent conflict in contexts of concern.