Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper focuses on the issue of intrastate conflicts in Sahelian states. Employing Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), this work aims to show the complexity of factors contributing to intrastate conflicts.

Paper long abstract:

As some seminal works shows (Collier, Hoeffler 1998; 2002; 2004; Collier, Hoeffler Rohner 2009; Gurr 2015; Fearon, Laitin 2003; Sambanis 2001 etc.), the specific reasons for intrastate conflicts are not easily identified. In most contexts, several different conditions play significant roles. The proposed paper offers methodological considerations in the study of conflicts by demonstrating the explanatory power of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This method specifically allows for the study of the ways in which multiple conditions are interrelated in the occurrence of intrastate conflicts. Various factors are taken into consideration and examined in terms of their relationships with other factors. Unlike the previous studies that have been using statistical methods with the focus on the impact of separate variables the paper advances the methodological landscape of security studies by highlighting the complex entanglement of conditions leading to intrastate conflicts in the Sahel region. Drawing from a wealth of diverse data such as Mo Ibrahim Index, World Bank Databank or Polity IV, the paper follows up on some previous studies (e.g. Benjaminsen 2008; Benjaminsen et al. 2012; Raleigh 2010 etc.) and would like to show how conflict incidence is based on interconnected relations of such conditions as population density, access to water and land, state repression or economic well-being. In which way is population density connected with access to water leading to intrastate conflicts? Is there any interdependent influence of human well-being, state repression, urbanization and quality of democracy on conflict incidence?