Loading...
Natural Disasters: Triggers of Political Instability?
Omelicheva, Mariya Y.
Omelicheva, Mariya Y.
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
Do different types of natural disasters – droughts, earthquakes, floods, storms,
and others – trigger political instability? This study engages with this question. It
revisits an ongoing debate over the nature of association between disasters and
conflict and re-assesses this relationship using the model of conflict developed by
the Political Instability Task Force as well as its data, measures of political
instability, and methods of assessment. The study finds only marginal support for
the impact of certain types of disasters on the onsets of political instability. The
pre-existing country-specific conditions, including the resilience of a state’s
institutions to crisis, account for most of the variance in the dependent variable.
Once the characteristics of a state’s political regime are taken into account, the
effect of disasters weakens or disappears completely suggesting that natural
disasters become catalysts of political instability in only those states, which are
already prone to conflict.
Description
This is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The publisher version is available on its site.
Date
2011
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Citation
Omelicheva, Mariya Y. Natural Disasters: Triggers of Political Instability? International
Interactions, 37(4): 441-465, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2011.622653