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Data on economic variables are drawn from the International Financial Statistics (IFS) Yearbook (Edward, 2008; Carson, 2000, 2002, 2004; McLenaghan, 1992, 1995) published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Statistics Department (1964, 1973, 1981, 1983). The economic variables that I obtained from the IFS are GDP, gross domestic investment, and government expenditures. The IMF values for the variables are in current prices. The current values are non-comparable across countries due to the different amounts of inflation across nations over time. I converted all data to constant values with the year 1985 as a base year using the GDP deflator provided by the IFS. For countries that do not have GDP deflators for the period (1960–2002), I used the consumer price index (CPI)² provided by the same source. In addition, the values for the variables are converted from their respective national currencies to U.S. dollars. Some countries in Latin America posed problems when I conducted the conversion process because they arbitrarily changed their national currencies several times from 1960 to 2002. These currency changes made it very difficult in the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Mexico to draw reliable conclusions from the empirical analysis. Several countries – Chile, Indonesia, Liberia, Mauritius, Madagascar, the Sudan, Tanzania, Zaire, and Zambia – have numerous missing values that made their time series fall below the required span for appropriate time series analysis. These nine countries were dropped from the NLS analysis, which reduced the number of countries involved in the NLS analysis to sixty countries. However, these nine countries were included in the CNTS analysis.

Ethnic conflicts and their links to international human trafficking have recently received a surge in international attention. It appears that ethnic conflicts exacerbate the internal displacement of individuals from networks of family and community, and their access to economic and social safety nets. These same individuals are then vulnerable to being trafficked by the hopes of better economic prospects elsewhere. In this chapter, we empirically examine this link between ethnic fragmentation, conflicts, internally displaced persons, refugees, and international trafficking, making use of a novel dataset of international trafficking. We conduct a direct estimation, which highlights the ultimate impact of ethnic fragmentation and conflict on international trafficking through internal and international displacements.

The purpose of the work is to study the process of development of “conflict-free” socio-economic system from the positions of the theory of conflicts and the theory of systems.

The object of the research is development of systems according to the optimistic scenario from the positions of the theory of systems and development of “conflict-free” socio-economic system from the positions of the theory of conflicts. The methods include comparative analysis, dynamic modeling of systems, and formalization. The authors compare treatment of phenomena and processes that emerge during development of system from the positions of the theory of systems and the theory of conflicts and compare the model of development of “conflict-free” socio-economic system from the positions of the theory of conflicts and the theory of systems.

As a result of the research, due to founding on the theory of systems, the theory of economic conflicts receives meta-scientific conceptual and methodological substantiation, which ensures its advantages as compared to the existing theory of economic cycles and the existing theory of economic crises: complex consideration of economic and social effects of conflict, correct description of phases of conflict, and more precise classification of causes of conflicts.

Due to these advantages, the theory of economic conflicts may help to describe, model, and forecast the processes of development of modern socio-economic systems, as well as to classify them via differentiating “conflict” and “non-conflict” systems.

Purpose – This chapter examines the impact of armed conflict and three forms of militarization on child mortality rates cross-nationally. Previous theorizing argues that praetorian militaries create conditions particularly adverse to the well-being of civilians, but the effects of praetorian militarization are likely confounded both by economic and social militarization, and by armed conflict, economic development, and political regime.

Methodology – This study conducts a cross-national panel study of the impact of armed conflict and militarization on civilian life chances using data from 175 countries with populations 200,000 or larger. Analyses employ a fixed-effects model, which controls for stable country characteristics; the analyses also control for time-varying characteristics of countries that influence the impact of armed conflict and militarization on life chances.

Findings – Praetorian militarization appears to increase child mortality, as does social militarization (particularly during years of internationalized internal armed conflict), once stable country effects and other variables are controlled. This chapter is the first to systematically examine the impact of praetorian militarization on social development (indexed by child mortality rates).

The fact that the ME has been an area of conflicts throughout its history is an indication of its utmost relevance to the strategy formulations of major powers. The ME can be called “the land bridge of civilization” because it links Africa with Eurasia, and it has been the trade route of peoples from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Ancient empires, as well as contemporary major powers, have competed for power and influence in the region to enhance their relative economic and military positions. The discovery of oil in the region escalated the struggle among major powers, created societal dislocations, and increased internal and external conflicts. The ME has been the major artery of contact for over 3000 years (Weatherby, 2001, pp. 1–4). One hundred years ago, scholar-adventurer John L. Stoddard recognized this fact when he described a small portion of the region, Palestine. According to Stoddard, “Palestine has an area only a little larger than the state of Massachusetts, while Russia occupies one seventh of the habitable globe: yet in the scales of intellectuals and moral value the little province of Judea outweighs beyond comparison the empire of Czar” (Weatherby, 2001, pp. 1–4).

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to introduce an actor-centered conflict perspective into research on multinational company (MNC) coordination. We first develop a theoretical framework of conflictual processes in MNC coordination and then use an empirical study of a German MNC in Japan to illustrate how cultural coordination in MNC subsidiaries triggers conflict processes.

Methodology/approach – The chapter integrates conflict theory and models of MNC coordination. The empirical study is based on qualitative data.

Findings – Coordination programs in MNC such as cultural integration through shared values lead to substantial conflictual processes. Local actors apply micro-political tactics to resist, delay or adjust coordination instruments developed by MNC headquarters.

Originality/value of chapter – The chapter applies conflict theory to MNC coordination issues, a field of research which so far is dominated by contingency approaches.

Active legal regulations, judicial practice, and law-enforcement experience have been used as the research core.

The works by A. Atsupov and S. Baklanovskii, devoted to classification tasks, as a way of discovering system features of multiple conflicts, have served for the research’s theoretical foundation.

The basis of such classification, including the classification by the subject content, has been studied using the works by R. Kraakman, P. Davies, H. Hansmann, G. Hertig, K. Hopt, H. Kanda, and E. Rjck.

Inter- and outer-group conflicts as well as the dependence on the social structure have been investigated using the studies of L. Coser. The interrelation between the social structure, a conflict’s institutionalization, and defining the extents of its admissibility have been analyzed with the help of the works by B. Collins, N. Grachev, D. Rant, A. Inshakova, K. Frohnapfel, V. Letyayev, etc.

When defining a self-sufficient group of corporate conflicts by the primary content criteria, the research authors have relied on the works by V. Dolinskaya and V. Slesarev, devoted to the subject of the private law theory.

V. Yadov’s scientific research has helped state corporate conflicts’ goals in terms of their classification. Here we imply the research, pointing out that such conflicts will either directly or indirectly be connected with the property sphere.

The actions of corporate conflicts’ parties, which predetermine their classification by the correlation with lawful behavior, have been examined owing to the works of L. Coser.

The issue of corporate conflicts and economic relations’ criminalization by embezzling, seizure, and rearranging the property, which includes bankruptcy proceedings, has been studied by means of Yu. Borisov, V. Dolinskaya, and N. Kavelina’s works.

The works by A. Inshakova and V. Slesareva, devoted to the sources of law, have contributed to corporate conflicts’ classification study.

The interconnection between the completion stage of the corporate conflicts dynamics and their settlement has been investigated in the framework of justifying the classification, basing on the completion method, taking into account the scientific results, reflected in the works by A. Antsupov, A. Danelyan, V. Laptev, and A. Shipilov.

In the course of study, corporate conflicts’ classification by their consequences, which can either be destructive and constructive, the research authors have used the studies by R. Freeman, devoted to the stakeholders’ theory, their interests’ balance, and the ways of forming the business’s economic environment.

The normative basis of the research are the provisions of sectoral codified acts by: the Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as special federal laws – The Federal Law “On Joint Stock Companies” as of December 26, 1995, No. 208.

The empirical basis of this research relies on the of the Russian Federation’s Constitutional Court’s Resolution as of July 18, 2003, No.14-P “On the case of verifying the constitutionality of the provisions of Article 35 of the Federal Law “On Joint-Stock Companies,” Articles 61 and 69 of the Russian Federation Civil Code, Article 31 of the Russian Federation Tax Code, and Article 14 of the Russian Federation Arbitration Procedure Code; the Russian Federation Constitutional Court Provisions as of March 15, 2003, No.3-P “On the Case of Constitutionality Review of Article 278 Paragraph 2 and Article 279 of the Russian Federation Labour Code and para 2 of Paragraph 4 of the Article 69 of the “On Joint-Stock Companies” Federal Law.

The following general scientific and specific scientific methods have been applied in this chapter: observation, complex and multi-sectoral analysis, synthesis, analogy, comparison, explanation, justification, induction, deduction, reduction, elementarism, system approach, comparative law method, specific sociological studies, logical, statistic, and so on.