ABSTRACT
This chapter will identify the main narratives which have been used to explain conflict in the developing world. In order to look at how actors have attempted to tackle development challenges during and after conflict, it is useful to have an understanding of the different ways in which these conflicts have been characterised. The aim of the chapter is to outline a number of different ways in which analysts have looked at conflict, but clearly it cannot be entirely comprehensive. It is based on the work of a great number of researchers, including Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, Mats Berdal and David Malone, Jeffrey Herbst, Stephen Ellis, David Keen, Thomas Homer-Dixon and Stathis Kalyvas. Whilst it cannot cover all of their ideas, they should form the core of any further reading. The chapter will examine differing explanations for conflict and look at the underpinnings of some of the labels applied to violence in the developing world, such as ethnic conflict, irrational violence and resource war.
