Spillover effects of internal armed conflicts often make them not only a national, but a regional or, in some cases, a worldwide problem. Refugees, militants and criminals cross borders to and fro, spreading problems to neighboring states and macerating the former domestic character of such crises. Frequently, neighboring states, international alliances or other institutional actors feel urged to intervene in countries facing domestic conflict. Often, this happens on an ad hoc-basis, leading to unexpected and unintended outcomes. The paper examines and quantifies the effect of external interventions. While former research mostly focused on military intervention, the paper adds perspectives on interventions in the economic, political and judicial realm. Conflict interventions are defined as actions designed to exert external influence on domestic policies connected with the conflict issue. Using state of the art quantitative methods, the paper explains impact of external influence on conflict dynamics is explored and formulates policy implications.
