Essay --

Introduction Civil conflict has been a focal point of the world’s attention in the post-Cold War Era, with news coverage of human rights violations, poverty, and casualties. This era has brought a systemic change from interstate wars to intra state wars. Civil conflicts may be arguably more severe than interstate wars because of the use of rebels, the lack of organized forces, and issues of sovereignty. The specific topic of this research is conflict and in particular, the causes of civil conflict. The question this research will address is why are states failing? Further, do failed states cause internal conflict? This question has extreme importance because of the implications this conflict has for not only its own civilians, but of those around it. Conflicts can cause a multitude of human rights violations, as well as displaced populations resulting in refugees, and overall tension in the region. Understanding the answer to this question helps policymakers make more informed decisions surrounding failed states in order to protect themselves and those within the failed state. This paper will address what political scientists have studied about the effects of colonization, explanations for how states fail, and the various causes of civil war. The theory and hypotheses of this paper will be stated, followed by descriptions and measurements of the independent, dependent, and control variables. Then, using statistical data, results will be presented, followed by the conclusion. Literature Review State failure has become a key issue in international relations in recent years. Political scientists have offered various explanations as to why states have failed, and possible solutions to stop and reverse state failure. Robert... ...n the recognized territory of a state (Sarkees and Wayman, 2010). For the war to be included in the data set it must involve sustained combat, involving organized armed forces, resulting in a minimum of 1,000 battle-related combatant fatalities within a twelve month period (Sarkees and Wayman, 2010). The UCDP/PRIO dataset requires a lesser threshold. The wars included in the internal armed conflict data set are those that occur between the government if a state and internal opposition groups without intervention from other states, resulting in at least 25 battle related deaths (Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg, Strand, 2002). Using quantitative research, I predict there will be a causal relationship between previously colonized states, and their present failure. I also predict there to be a causal relationship between failed states and civil conflict.