Civil War and State Formation: Exploring Linkages and Potential Causality

Abstract

This working paper offers a perspective on contemporary debates about state-formation, contributing to ongoing thinking about the role of conflict and specifically civil war in the emergence of different kinds of political orders. Based on a reconceptualization of the likely nature of the linkages between civil war and political order, the working paper develops a set of potential causal pathways linking common conditions of civil war to likely wartime changes in the political settlement and state institutions. In doing so, it aims to provide an organising framework for future research to explore conditions under which different pathways predominate and aims to offer an analytical tool to policy makers and researchers to consider potential impacts and consequences of violent conflict in contexts of concern.