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Insights from the Field

Civil War Researchers Overlook Fatality Thresholds? New Findings on Narcotics Matter


fatality thresholds
civil war
narcotics
endogeneity
International Relations
PSR&M
2 R files
2 datasets
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Dataverse
Fatality Thresholds, Causal Heterogeneity, and Civil War Research: Reconsidering the Link Between Narcotics and Conflict was authored by Noel Anderson and Alec Worsnop. It was published by Cambridge in PSR&M in 2019.

Problem: Civil war studies debate the right fatality threshold but rarely check how results change across different levels. This could miss crucial differences between minor and major conflicts.

New Insight: Looking at multiple thresholds reveals that the link between narcotics and conflict intensity isn't uniform - it varies significantly.

Solution: We propose a dynamic theory: rebel groups endogenously adopt drug cultivation as a tactic, especially when conventional resources dwindle or strategic circumstances shift.

This suggests scholars should reconsider their case definitions to capture nuances in how factors like narcotics drive conflict differently across severity levels.

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Political Science Research & Methods
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