Fixing For a Fight
Can Interstate Rivalry Ever be Positive for the State’s Populace?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.8.209Keywords:
Interstate Rivalry, Conflict, Tilly, State-building, Poverty, non-OECD, Critical reviewAbstract
This article aims to challenge the myth that interstate rivalry and conflict can only have negative effects for state populace. It observes that interstate rivalry can have positive effects on poverty reduction in developing states. It begins by explaining Tilly’s bellicose model of war and state-building, and investigates how it can be adapted to non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) states, engaging with current literature in the process. Then it considers some objections to the application of the model to non-OECD states, concluding the literature review by explaining the causal mechanism expected to result in poverty reduction. The article then runs a number of comparative statistical regressions on a pooled cross-sectional time-series dataset, measuring poverty, rivalry and control variables tri-annually from 103 non-OECD states between 1981 and 1999. The results of these tests support the general hypothesis that interstate rivalry reduces poverty. The article then concludes by discussing moral considerations, policy advice and future research directions.
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