Christopher Blattman

"Why We Fight" is an accessible, hope-filled introduction to the problems of violence, corruption, instability, etc. that many governments face. It's comforting to have a model to understand why wars start that's more nuanced than "evil selfish people in power".

I find myself comparing many of the solutions and advice to those found in Strong Towns: try a lot of small experiments, focus on what works, build wealth and stability by empowering local people and groups to come up with their own solutions.… (meer)

Blattman's theories are not terribly insightful. Unfortunately, organizing the book around these theories meant that the conflicts' analyses were fragmentary or incomplete. The book would really have benefited from more details, and a more comprehensive—instead of cherry-picked—analysis of at least some conflicts, preferably from Blattman's own expertise.

> It turns out the planners in Lesotho—a mix of central government and foreign agencies—overlooked some important details. Not being able to sell cows was the whole point of buying them. Most Basotho men worked far away in South African mines. When they sent their money home, they didn’t want their wives to spend it, so they bought assets that were hard to liquidate. If you create a market for cows, you threaten their whole system of social control. The people with power (in this case, the migrant men) actively worked against the project. It failed spectacularly.… (meer)