Raleigh, Clionadh2012-06-072012-06-072007-06https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7422This study questions the extent to which domestic conflict is influenced by national, regional, and international relationships. It is designed to answer specific questions relating to the effects of neighboring characteristics on a state's risk of conflict and instability: What is the interaction between neighboring conflict and political disorder? Do democratic neighborhoods have different conflict trajectories than non-democratic neighborhoods and if so, where and why? Given that most poor countries are located in poor and conflictual neighborhoods, to what extent is there a relationship between poverty and political disorder in different regime neighborhoods? Using spatial lag terms to specify neighboring regime characteristics and multilevel models to differentiate between explanatory levels, this study reiterates the importance of domestic and neighboring factors in promoting or diminishing the risk of instability and conflict. However, the pronounced negative effects of autocratic and anocratic neighborhoods are mitigated by a growing domestic GDP. This study also finds that democratic neighborhoods are more stable, regardless of income level. Research presented here is unique in its contribution on how regime type is a significant development indicator, which in turn is salient in determining the risks of civil war across states.CC BY 3.0 IGOARMED CONFLICTBOUNDARIESCIVIL CONFLICTCIVIL PEACECIVIL UNRESTCIVIL WARCIVIL WARSCONFLICTCONFLICT PREVENTIONCONFLICT RISKCONFLICTSDEMOCRACYDEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONSDURATION OF PEACEETHNIC FRACTIONALIZATIONETHNIC FRAGMENTATIONETHNIC GROUPSETHNICALLY DIVIDED SOCIETIESHIGH RISKINCOMEINTERNAL CONFLICTINTERNATIONAL COMMUNITYINTERNATIONAL WARLEVEL OF DEVELOPMENTLINGUISTIC FRACTIONALIZATIONMIDDLE EASTMILITARY SPENDINGNATIONAL POPULATIONNEIGHBOR EFFECTSNEIGHBORING CIVIL WARSNEIGHBORING STATESPEACEPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOLITICAL INSTABILITYPOLITICAL PARTICIPATIONPOLITICAL STABILITYPOORPOST-CONFLICTPOST-CONFLICT SOCIETIESPROGRESSREBEL RECRUITMENTREBELLIONREFUGEERISK OF CONFLICTRISK OF WARSPATIAL LAGWAR EPISODESWAR LITERATUREWAR PROJECTWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4260