Under Which Circumstances Are Intra-State Conflicts Driven By Resource Curse?

Sammanfattning: We predictably believe that immense natural resources would generate large revenues and wealth within a country. Nevertheless, a lot of evidences show the contrary. Empirical studies find that resource abundance, economic collapse, civil wars, and political instability are well correlated. This indeed creates a complex puzzle as to why natural blessing has not always brought wealth in most resource-rich countries. Instead, it appears to be a curse. This paper challenges the prevailing understanding of natural resources as a precursor of armed conflict and an obstacle to peace and political stability. This is achieved through a comparative case study between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, testing resource curse theory from Paul Collier and Philippe Le Billon’s hypothesis. We come to find that resource curse leads to intra-state conflicts under certain circumstances, basically the colonial influence, geographic characteristics of the country, the stability in its governance, and its relationship with neighboring countries and in the international panel in general.