Book excerpt: Annotation VOLUME I: Africa VOLUME II: Europe, Central Asia, and Other Regions (volumes sold separately) "This is a superb manuscript, and one that will become a standard reference in the field for students of conflict and civil war." Robert Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University The two volumes of Understanding Civil War build upon the World Bank's prior research on conflict and violence, particularly on the work of Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, whose model of civil war onset has sparked much discussion on the relationship between conflict and development in what came to be known as the "greed" versus "grievance" debate. The authors systematically apply the Collier-Hoeffler model to 15 countries in 6 different regions of the world, using a comparative case study methodology to revise and expand upon economic models of civil war. The book concludes that the "greed" versus "grievance" debate should be abandoned for a more complex model that considers greed and grievance as inextricably fused motives for civil war. regions of Somalia. Conflict in Somalia examines the results of the study and offers recommendations for reconstruction and development assistance that takes the knowledge on conflict into account.