An influential conventional wisdom holds that oil causes intrastate conflict and that oil in particular explains the prevalence of domestic political violence in the Muslim world. I show that the relationship between oil and intrastate conflict in the empirical literature is more ambiguous than commonly assumed. I test to see if the various measures of the oil resource predict any dimension of intrastate conflict in the Muslim world. My results show oil resources are associated with lower levels of civil conflict, repression and terrorism in Muslim-majority countries. This supports the 'rentier state' perspective which states that regimes with significant oil resources mitigate conflict by strengthening the state relative to the populace and by distributing rent. Lastly, I argue the reasons for the concentration of conflict in Muslim world are not understood but the fact that Muslim 'rentier states' are able to effectively mitigate conflict offers some clues.
","abstract_html":"<p>An influential conventional wisdom holds that oil causes intrastate conflict and that oil in particular explains the prevalence of domestic political violence in the Muslim world. I show that the relationship between oil and intrastate conflict in the empirical literature is more ambiguous than commonly assumed. I test to see if the various measures of the oil resource predict any dimension of intrastate conflict in the Muslim world. My results show oil resources are associated with lower levels of civil conflict, repression and terrorism in Muslim-majority countries. This supports the 'rentier state' perspective which states that regimes with significant oil resources mitigate conflict by strengthening the state relative to the populace and by distributing rent. Lastly, I argue the reasons for the concentration of conflict in Muslim world are not understood but the fact that Muslim 'rentier states' are able to effectively mitigate conflict offers some clues.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wasif, Kumail"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joseph Szyliowicz, Ph.D.","Lewis K. Griffith","Andrea Stanton"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:03:12Z","subjects":["Civil war","Intrastate conflict","Muslim world","Oil resources","Repression","Terrorism","International and Area Studies"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1232","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joseph Szyliowicz, Ph.D.","Lewis K. Griffith","Andrea Stanton"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wasif, Kumail"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-02-17T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Civil war","Intrastate conflict","Muslim world","Oil resources","Repression","Terrorism","International and Area Studies"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1232"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["An influential conventional wisdom holds that oil causes intrastate conflict and that oil in particular explains the prevalence of domestic political violence in the Muslim world. I show that the relationship between oil and intrastate conflict in the empirical literature is more ambiguous than commonly assumed. I test to see if the various measures of the oil resource predict any dimension of intrastate conflict in the Muslim world. My results show oil resources are associated with lower levels of civil conflict, repression and terrorism in Muslim-majority countries. This supports the 'rentier state' perspective which states that regimes with significant oil resources mitigate conflict by strengthening the state relative to the populace and by distributing rent. Lastly, I argue the reasons for the concentration of conflict in Muslim world are not understood but the fact that Muslim 'rentier states' are able to effectively mitigate conflict offers some clues.
"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Oil Blessing: Reexamining Conflict in the Muslim World"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Joseph Szyliowicz, Ph.D.","Lewis K. Griffith","Andrea Stanton"],"dc:creator":["Wasif, Kumail"],"dc:date.available":["2017-02-17T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["An influential conventional wisdom holds that oil causes intrastate conflict and that oil in particular explains the prevalence of domestic political violence in the Muslim world. I show that the relationship between oil and intrastate conflict in the empirical literature is more ambiguous than commonly assumed. I test to see if the various measures of the oil resource predict any dimension of intrastate conflict in the Muslim world. My results show oil resources are associated with lower levels of civil conflict, repression and terrorism in Muslim-majority countries. This supports the 'rentier state' perspective which states that regimes with significant oil resources mitigate conflict by strengthening the state relative to the populace and by distributing rent. Lastly, I argue the reasons for the concentration of conflict in Muslim world are not understood but the fact that Muslim 'rentier states' are able to effectively mitigate conflict offers some clues.
"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1232"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"dc:subject":["Civil war","Intrastate conflict","Muslim world","Oil resources","Repression","Terrorism","International and Area Studies"],"dc:title":["The Oil Blessing: Reexamining Conflict in the Muslim World"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:03:12Z"}