The existential catastrophe faced by the population of the Gaza Strip currently looms large in the foreign policy and security debates. The plight of civilians there is par­ticularly acute. Yet, severe crises persist elsewhere too - from Ukraine and Sudan to Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of...

Civil wars often erode state sovereignty, as institutions are replaced or co-opted by armed groups that establish informal governance structures. Among these, rebel taxation emerges as a key tool for financing wartime activities and administering territories. We explore whether rebel taxation...

This paper studies how female participation in household decision making has been affected by the ongoing civil conflict in the Republic of Yemen in areas under the control of the Internationally Recognized Government. Using a unique survey dataset that tracks households between 2014 and 2021...

Food insecurity remains a pressing challenge in conflict zones, where disrupted livelihoods, mass displacement, and eroded institutional support increase household risk. The armed conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region erupted in November 2020, devastating infrastructure, displacing over a million...

We develop a simple model that jointly determines the level of trade and the extent of trade-disruption risk associated with geopolitical conflict. Any pair of countries is likely to settle into one of two steady states: (i) a low level of trade coupled with high trade-disruption risk, or (ii) a...

This report presents the results of a rapid damage and reconstruction assessment, conducted by the World Bank, related to the impacts of the 2011-24 conflict in Syria. This assessment is intended to provide an estimate of the overall scale of damage and reconstruction cost due to the conflict...

The international context is changing profoundly, owing to rising autocratisation and the return of international war. These transformations also impact the long-standing problem of state fragility. The IDOS Constellations of State Fragility (CSF) provides a differentiated model to measure state...

Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has confronted persistent challenges from conflict and climate change, profoundly disrupting its economic and social stability. This study analyzes the economic impacts of conflict and climate shocks-specifically floods and droughts-on South Sudan from...

We examine the intersection of two subfields within political economy: geoeconomics and conflict. Geoeconomics is primarily concerned with the use of "economic weapons " of coercion, while the conflict literature mainly focuses on military weapons and war. We propose bridging these two...

We investigate how exposure to conflict events shapes individuals' democratic preferences, focusing on support for democracy in general and perceptions of governance within one's own country. We examine how ethnic affiliation - whether an individual belongs to an ethnic group with access to...

Little is known about the effects of political conflicts on the status of women in society. Polarizing attitudes might have a differential effect on women's lives after a conflict. To consider this, the case of Greece after the Second World War is exploited, when the country became highly...

This paper describes how cyber and material conflicts overlaps in the international system. Given countries' international alliances and conflicts, as well as their technical abilities, we want to uncover whether or not countries engage in cross-domain operations. Combining a dataset collecting...

Despite growing attention being paid to the societal impacts of violent conflict, little is known about how exposure thereto shapes gender attitudes, particularly in Africa. This study addresses that gap by examining the relationship between exposure to violent conflict and attitudes toward...

The revival of economic nationalism poses a challenge to neoclassical orthodoxy, which claims that liberalized international trade is (subject to a few recognized exceptions) inherently cooperative and mutually beneficial. Post-Keynesian open economy models demonstrate that international trade...

How do rebel groups incorporate locals into their economic systems, and how do these civil-military relations affect the political dynamics of armed conflicts? This study explores the economic institutions regulated by rebel groups in conflict areas and their impact on the duration of the...

We introduce political salience into a canonical model of attacks against political regimes, as scaling agents’ expressive payoffs from taking sides. Equilibrium balances heterogeneous expressive concerns with material bandwagoning incentives. We examine comparative statics in salience that...

Elections in fragile democracies are not merely contests over policy but battles for control over state resources, including foreign aid. Aid provides local governments with substantial discretionary funds, creating strong incentives for rent-seeking political actors to capture political office....

This handbook chapter provides a synthesis of the literature on armed conflicts, with a special focus on development economics, while covering also other disciplines. The piece starts off with a discussion of the main consequences of conflict before investigating its root causes. First, a series...

This paper examines the compounded effects of conflict on household recovery following disasters, using Nigeria as a case study. The analysis employs the "Unbreakable" microsimulation model to analyze how proximity to conflict influences recovery rates and well-being, measured by consumption...

This study investigates the relationship between foreign aid and conflict incidence at the sub-national level across Africa using an innovative, high-resolution panel dataset of monthly grid-cell observations. By combining geo-referenced World Bank aid data with conflict event data from the...

In the preceding 11 years, Turkey has witnessed 925 terrorist incidents, resulting in the unexpected passing of 1,439 people. Concurrently, the neighbouring nations, Syria, and Iraq, have also experienced a multitude of terrorist activities. This study's main objective is to explore how these...