Natural Resources and Insurgency in Colombia.

Scholars have made important contributions to our understanding of civil war, yet clear causal mechanisms remain contested. This paper uses the Colombian case to adjudicate between competing explanations for civil war and to clarify the causal mechanisms that drive conflict within the state. Collier and Hoeffler (2004) use highly aggregated macro-level data to suggest potential causes of civil war, finding several economic variables to be significant predictors of conflict onset. Fearon and Laitin (2003) use a similar model and methodology but argue that a weak state is the cause of conflict onset. A difference between the models is the mechanism through which resource dependence affects insurgency. This paper examines these competing concepts of natural resource dependence and insurgency, and compares the expectations of these models to the reality of the Colombian case. By looking at one case in detail, this study highlights mechanisms that macro-level studies of civil war are unable to pinpoint with certainty. The findings suggest that resource predation is a better explanation for civil war than is state weakness in Colombia, and the effects of drug predation are significantly different than those of other natural resources. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]