Ethnic Divisions and Civil War

The period since World War Two has been marked by a great deal of civil war. Most of these civil wars have been ethnic civil wars. This paper presents a one shot game of ethnic conflict. The government is endowed with goods that it distributes among ethnic groups. The government is initially controlled by one of the groups and other factions can expend resources to fight for control of the government. I show that the incidence of war is higher in more ethnically fragmented countries. I discuss external interventions to decrease the incidence of civil war. I show that military aid to the government can decrease conflict while economic aid can increase conflict. ∗I thank V.V. Chari, Michele Boldrin, Larry Jones, and Ross Levine for their encouragement and helpful suggestions. Comments by workshop participants at the 2001 SED Conference in Stockholm and the University of Minnesota were also very useful. Igor Livshits translated Russian data. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System. email: [email protected]. Tel. (612) 204-5531. Fax: (612) 204-5515.