Economic Agendas in Civil Wars: What We Know, What We Need to Know

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, the political economy of civil wars has acquired unprecedented relevance for scholars and policymakers dealing with pre-venting and mitigating armed conflict. The issue is now under scrutiny by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutes, humanitarian and aid organizations, governments, international financial organizations (IFIs), and, importantly, the United Nations (UN). This chapter provides a tour d’horizon of this field, based largely on the research findings and policy debates that have emerged from the three-year project by the International Peace Academy (now the International Peace Institute) on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (EACW), which concluded in 2004.