This study tests a theory detailing the increased likelihood of conflict following an initial resource discovery in the discovering nation and its region. A survey of prior literature shows a multitude of prior research concerning resources and nations' willingness to initiate conflict over those resources, but this prior research lacks any study concerning the effects of the discovery of resources on interstate conflict. The theory discusses the increased likelihood of conflict in the discovering nation as both target and initiator. It further looks at the increased chance of conflict in the discoverer's region due to security dilemmas and proxy wars. The results show strong support for the theory, suggesting nations making new resource discoveries must take extra care to avoid conflict.

Since the 1970s, a curious phenomenon has emerged, suggesting that resource rich countries are "cursed" by their resources. Over the last couple of decades, researchers have argued that rentier countries are more likely to have educational underachievement, the Dutch disease, corruption, slower democratization, and conflict. Although current research has proven helpful and productive, some aspects still remain contested in both theoretical and empirical terms. This dissertation aims to fill certain lacunae in this literature. My dissertation examines how ordinary citizens turn into dissidents and then to rebels in rentier states. I build and test an innovative theoretical argument, which focuses on individuals' daily lives, and explains how policies by rentier governments discourage merit-based employment. This, in turn, yields a high level of grievance among segments of the population. I also develop a comprehensive theory that combines macro-level and micro-level explanations of conflict onset in rentier states. Finally, I analyze an important, but previously neglected aspect of civil wars in rentier states: conflict outcomes. I suggest that the existence of abundant natural resources would have a significant impact on conflict outcomes. Accordingly, government victory would be more likely, and negotiated settlement would be less likely in rentier countries compared to non-rentier countries.

The role of natural resources in African conflicts has been subject to extensive scholarly analysis. However, much of this analysis has taken a narrow economic reductionist bias. As such, it is imperative that the dominant assumptions and accepted concepts and theories about the role of natural resources in African conflicts be re-examined. The aim of this thesis is to offer a revaluation of the role of coltan during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Second War (1998-2003) through a critical engagement with the resource wars literature. The purpose is to offer a re-reading of the role of coltan in the DRC Second War and the broader regional and global economic context in which this conflict took place. It rejects the commonly cited assumption that the presence of coltan in the DRC means it is an initiator of conflict. Rather, this thesis argues that the central role of coltan in the DRC Second War was as an aggravator of conflict in that its exploitation was used by different parties to fund their military and political ambitions. This thesis also argues that the DRC’s weak state structures and pivotal role within the Great Lakes region, as well as the international trade of coltan and the nature of the DRC coltan mining industry are all key factors in understanding coltan exploitation in the country’s Eastern Region during the Second War.