Why Nations Fight: The Causes of the Nigeria–Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula Conflict

Abstract

This article examines the conditions under which state leaders chose to make territorial issues a point of contention using the Nigeria–Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula conflict as an empirical case. Drawing on the theoretical insights of neoclassical realism, the article surveys evidence from the importance of domestic political and economic conditions to the relevance of cultural and historical factors as well as from territorial and geopolitical issues to contend that the Nigeria–Cameroon conflict emerged from three theoretical logics: the territorial logic of aggression, the geostrategic logic of aggression, and the diversionary logic of aggression. The qualitative evidence is synthesized to enhance greater understanding of the domestic and international linkages that connect petroleum with territory and aggressive foreign policy.