Civil War and (Re)Building the State: Recovery in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador

How do civil wars affect post-war states? I argue that instead of simply examining one or two variables, civil wars need to be viewed holistically, in order to properly observe their effect on post-war states. The pre-war government, alliances, type of warfare, duration, and method of war termination work together in a causal sequence to determine the stability and quality of subsequent post-war states. Using comparative historical analysis, supplemented with process tracing, I compare three cases from Central America: the Costa Rican Civil War, the Sandinista Revolution, and the Salvadoran Civil War. A road map to state stability and instability and recurrence is drawn here.