A viable peace is one that comes about naturally and persists without the need for outside intervention. At least since Baron de Montesquieu’s statement that “peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has the...

NGO's with an interest in peace and development in Africa documented the role of diamonds in conflict while soci scientists were researching and modeling the role of natural resources in long-standing violent conflicts. Journalists described what was happening on the ground. The United Nations...

The article reports results of an empirical investigation into trade, openness, and domestic conflict for several Latin American countries. It addresses two main issues: (1) whether variations in trade openness affect the likelihood of the onset of domestic conflict and (2) once initiated, how...

This piece provides a Foreword to the new journal by the chair of Economics for Peace and Security.

The concept of benefit-sharing, as employed in the Inter-SEDE model, analyzes potential security, economic development, and environmental-related benefits to sharing the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris river basins. The article finds that Iraq scores fairly high on security and...

The five riparians of the Jordan river basin share a number of transboundary watercourses. These include the surface waters of the Jordan river itself; several other smaller surface waters; and a number of aquifers. Interstate conflict between the riparians is well documented and has been ongoing...

The conflict-trade paradigm has been dominated by the liberal and realist schools of thought, which try to explain how and why trade affects conflict and cooperation. While the liberal point of view predicts a positive effect of levels of trade on cooperation, realists counter by arguing a...

This article analyzes the impact of counter-terrorism policies, e.g., the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq, on the financial structure of European terror networks and argues that such policies, far from defeating Jihadist activities, ended up boosting them. In response to such measures, terror...

Five factors contribute to humanitarian crises in Africa. They are: stagnating and declining incomes, rising income inequality, avaricious competition to extract Africa's mineral wealth, military centrality, and a tradition of violent conflict. One factor - ethnic differences - turns out to be a...

This piece introduces the new journal. This issue 'Conflict or Development?' has a regional focus on Africa. Joseph Stiglitz discusses the role of information in conflict and draws a fascinating analogy between civil strife and a labor strike. Paul Collier and Neil Cooper take different...