Leiden University Student Repository

Goes, Martijn van der (2021)

Fueling conflict: How the location of oil influences ethnical conflict

Bachelor thesis | Bestuurskunde (BSc)

This article is aimed at developing our understanding of ethnic conflict and war which is needed to be able to build new theories about resolving these conflicts what is up until now barely covered within the literature. This is executed by testing the theory of Tang, Xiong and Li about the ethnogeographical location of the oil. This theory states that when the oil is located within the core territory of a subordinate minority group it has a positive effect on the onset and escalation of an ethnic conflict. By performing case studies on conflicts between the Kurds and the Iraq state and Cabinda and Angola we found this theory to be true. There is also found that each case has a high degree of specificity which makes it very difficult to establish a universal model to accommodate ethnical conflicts caused by the ethnogeographical location of the oil. It is therefore logical to suggest further research which aims at establishing a framework for resolving ethnical conflict to perform a...Show moreThis article is aimed at developing our understanding of ethnic conflict and war which is needed to be able to build new theories about resolving these conflicts what is up until now barely covered within the literature. This is executed by testing the theory of Tang, Xiong and Li about the ethnogeographical location of the oil. This theory states that when the oil is located within the core territory of a subordinate minority group it has a positive effect on the onset and escalation of an ethnic conflict. By performing case studies on conflicts between the Kurds and the Iraq state and Cabinda and Angola we found this theory to be true. There is also found that each case has a high degree of specificity which makes it very difficult to establish a universal model to accommodate ethnical conflicts caused by the ethnogeographical location of the oil. It is therefore logical to suggest further research which aims at establishing a framework for resolving ethnical conflict to perform a case study and develop a case specific solution while attempts of establishing a universal one are likely to fail.Show less

Resource curse

oil

natural resources

ethnical conflict

ethnical groups

Cabinda

Angola

Kurds

Iraq

Author

Goes, Martijn van der

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Specialisation

Beleid, Bestuur en Organisatie

Supervisors

Karakasis, V.P.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en