ABSTRACT
Conflict is one of the most serious problems facing developing countries, yet peace is one of the most fundamental dreams any human being can have. Developed countries are fortunate that none have had a war on sovereign soil since the end of World War II and since then have had an unprecedented period of prosperity and exceptional improvements in living standards and life expectancy. Most of the armed hostilities since the end of World War II have involved developing countries and, since 1945, out of 47 civil wars, only 2 took place in developed countries. The first is the Greek civil war in the aftermath of World War II between 1946 and 1949, and the second is the Northern Ireland conflict from about the mid-1960s to 1998. Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler also studied the determinants of civil wars and identified two fundamental motives for these conflicts: greed and grievance.
