Costly signalling and environmental scarcity as causes of the civil war in the Kivu

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Security grade: 15 Uppsala University (Department for Peace and Conflict Research) course: Causes of War language: English abstract: In an attempt to throw light on the complex relationship between environmental change and conflict and costly signalling and conflict this paper examines the explanatory power of Homer-Dixon's theory on environmental scarcity and Öberg's signalling theory as regards the outbreak of violent conflict in North Kivu. In particular the paper deals with the following problematic: Is the onset of civil war in North Kivu in 1994 correlated with demand-induced scarcity or did the exchange of costly signals between the government and rebels spiral into war?