Military Interventions in Civil Wars: Protecting Foreign Direct Investments and the Defence Industry

ABSTRACT

This study extends existing scholarship on the influence of corporate/industry investments on the onset of military interventions in civil wars challenging prior null findings. It proposes a state-centric theoretical framework and argues that researchers have to differentiate between the protection and the advancement of corporate/industry interests. Random-effect logit models in combination with UCDP data on interventions from 2001 until 2009 corroborate the hypothesis that the protection of existing foreign direct investments, as well as the protection of prior arms trade, increase the willingness of a state to intervene militarily in a civil war.