The Causes and Dynamics of Civil War

The provided text offers a comprehensive analysis of civil wars, defining them as large-scale, sustained armed conflicts between a state and organized non-state actors over political control or territory, requiring specific casualty thresholds to distinguish them from other violence. It explores various theoretical frameworks, primarily the "greed versus grievance" dichotomy, which examines whether conflicts are driven by perceived injustices or opportunities for financial gain. The text then categorizes civil war causes into political factors like state weakness, exclusion, and elite competition; socio-economic factors such as poverty, inequality, and the "resource curse"; and social and identity-based drivers, including politicized identity and ideology. Finally, it discusses the dynamics of escalation, including immediate triggers and the crucial role of foreign intervention in internationalizing and prolonging conflicts, using the American, Rwandan, and Syrian civil wars as case studies.

Research done with the help of artificial intelligence, and presented by two AI-generated hosts.