Nation-Building and Conflict in Modern Africa

SummaryNation-building has long been seen as an important focus of post-colonial African governments. However, up until now there has been no empirical analysis of the consequences of nation-building policies. Here we compile an original dataset measuring nine different types of nation-building policies. We first use logistic regressions to test the effect of nation-building policies on civil wars using two different datasets of civil wars, and find no evidence of a negative relationship between nation-building and civil war onset. Furthermore, a survival analysis exercise reveals a robust relationship between the proximity of nation-building policies and the onset of civil war.