War and Development

The course will give an introduction to the literature on the relationship between armed conflict - domestic and interstate -- and socio-economic development, widely defined as a mixture of economic productivity, state capacity, and citizens' welfare. It will discuss theoretical arguments where the relationship between war and development is mediated by state capacity, asset specificity or appropriability, economic networks, education, demography, or through democratisation. The course will have a strong focus on empirical documentation but also look at the theoretical arguments explaining the empirical patterns. The course will consider the effect of development on conflict as well as the effect of conflict on development in terms of economic growth, public health, refugee flows, and gender differences in health outcomes. It will also look at arguments that link both conflict and development to deeper causal processes.