Disaggregated Perspectives on Civil War and Ethnic Conflict: Prospects of an Emerging Research Agenda+

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I. INTRODUCTION

Academic conflict research, deeply rooted in Cold War thinking, has traditionally focused on the causes of war between states, with an analytical focus on the role of military alliances, joint land borders, arms races, nuclear deterrence, trade relations, democracy levels, balances and imbalances of power, and the like.1 Control over disputed territory has been the most frequent issue of international violent dissent among states.2 After the end of the Cold War, international relations scholars studying violent conflict noticed that since 1945, the most common and lethal form of organized violence was intra- rather than interstate war. Although in general less …