Type of Resource:
Journal

Year of Publication:
2015

Indicators:
- Enablers
- Challenges


Themes:
- Internet for Democracy
- Internet Or Digital Rights and Freedoms
- Internet Safety

Author(s): Nils B Weidmann

Theories of conflict diffusion have long argued that domestic conflict spreads from one country to others. One set of mechanisms explaining this relies on material flows across borders that incite violence in neighboring countries. Another set of mechanisms, however, relies on informational flows. Information about ongoing violence elsewhere triggers strategic learning and demonstration effects in subnational conflict actors which may increase the likelihood that these actors ultimately resort to violence. The article shows that the occurrence of ethnic conflict in a country’s main communication partners significantly increases the probability of domestic ethnic violence, and that this effect operates in conjunction with, and is at least as strong as, the spatial contagion effect of conflict in the geographic neighborhood.

URL
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022343314554670

Region of Study:
Africa,

Country of Study:
Africa,

Study Quality
High