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Using composite indices, the paper examines the nexus between militarization, globalization and liberal democracy. The democratic peace theory, the conflict inhibiting effects of international trade – a key and dominant facet of globalization – and the democracy promoting globalization hypothesis form the theoretical underpinnings of the empirical investigation.

To probe into the issue at hand, the paper adopts a dynamic panel VAR estimation procedure. Given the usual data constraints, the sample consists of 113 countries, and the estimations span the period 1995–2019.

The findings from the dynamic panel VAR estimations suggest the presence of a negative and statistically significant nexus between the level of globalization and the level of militarization. No statistically traceable nexus between globalization and liberal democracy was found.

The findings offer empirical support to the hypothesis that the strong links of interdependence shaped by globalization reduce the need for military preparedness. The results lead to a tentative inference in favor of the doux commerce thesis. Nonetheless, given that the estimations span a historically specific period – the entire post-bipolar era – the inferences that stem from the findings should be treated with caution.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the composite indices Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) militarization index, the globalization index of the Swiss Economic Institute (Konjunkturforschungsstelle) (KOF), LibDem, polyarchy have not hitherto been jointly used in previous studies to examine the nexus between militarization, globalization and liberal democracy.

Conflict and civil strife adversely affect the economy since it severely disrupts the normal, daily routine of economic activity. Similarly, economic downturns can trigger discontent that has the potential to escalate into social unrest and strife. Using the recently compiled index on social unrest (RSUI) of Barrett et al. (2020), the paper sets out to examine the nexus between economic growth and social unrest in the case of 29 Middle East and Central Asia countries over the period 2000–2018.

To probe into the issue at hand, the paper adopts a panel causality approach. To this effect, two panel causality tests are used. The first is the heterogeneous panel causality model proposed by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) is employed. The second panel Granger causality test is the frequency domain causality test constructed by Breitung and Candelon (2006) and extended for panel testing by Croux and Reusens (2013).

The results of the causality tests indicate a strong bidirectional nexus between civil unrest and economic growth. The findings support the contention that civil strife adversely affects economic performance and economic downturns can trigger discontent and unrest.

Albeit consistent and robust, the results reported herein concern the specific sample of countries under scrutiny. Extending the analysis to other groups of countries will offer better insights into the nexus between civil unrest and economic performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present paper is the first to address the nexus between social unrest and economic growth for this group of countries using the recently compiled index on social unrest (RSUI).