War & Conflict

• There is a clear overlap between war and conflict and underdevelopment
• Reasons why war and conflict can damage development

  • Economic damage
  • Damage to the environment
  • Spread of disease
  • Difficulty distributing aid
• Economic damage from conflict


  1. Cost of redeveloping damaged infrastructure

  2. Difficulty re-establishing economic growth

  3. Unemployment and displacement

  4. Social spending to provide food and shelter
• Neoliberal approach to post-conflict redevelopment


  Can lead to further conflict by destabilising the nation and causing political upheaval
• Conflicts can damage the environment through unexploded munitions, desertification, and pollution
• Disease spreads rapidly in war zones and post-conflict situations, especially in refugee camps
• It can be harder or even impossible to distribute aid during conflicts because it is too dangerous to transport it across the country and aid workers can become targets
• Conflict can remove corrupt, kleptocratic regimes and bring in better, more democratic governments


  But the success of protests is mixed and can escalate into civil and international wars that damage development
• End of conflicts


  Attract investment from NGOs, international organisations, and TNCs for reconstruction
• Modernisation theory


  Conflict is a symptom of primitive, "backward" values like collectivism and tribalism, and will decrease as countries develop and become modern capitalist states
• Dependency theory


  Conflicts are caused by the West through imperialism and capitalism, which create poverty and lack of resources in the developing world
• Imperialists and colonialists drew new boundaries and created nations within which tribal, national and ethnic conflicts developed, sometimes leading to horrific ethnic conflicts
• Many conflicts are started or exacerbated by poverty and a lack of resources, which Marxists believe are caused by capitalism
• Frances Stewart's argument


  The underlying causes of conflict are economic more than ethnic or cultural: lack of resources, unemployment, poor government
• Paul Collier's argument


  Resource wealth, ethnic divides, and political instability can cause conflict, and aid priorities should examine conflict risk and minimize conflict
• Power is central to war and conflict, and it also relates to social stratification and socialisation