GDP Theory: Economic Capacity, Inequality, and Wartime Sexual Violence

Abstract

Wartime sexual violence remains one of the most devastating features of contemporary armed conflict. While feminist International Relations scholarship has demonstrated that wartime rape reflects deeply embedded gendered systems of power, and strategic explanations have shown how sexual violence can function as a weapon of terror and social control, existing approaches do not fully explain variation in its prevalence across conflict environments. This article introduces Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Theory, a political economy framework that identifies economic capacity and income inequality as structural conditions shaping the likelihood of wartime sexual violence. It asks how Gross Domestic Product impacts the use of wartime sexual violence in conflict. Specifically, the theory argues that low GDP per capita and high inequality weaken military institutional capacity, increase fragmentation among armed actors, and make low-cost forms of violence, including sexual violence, more structurally available. Drawing on theory-building exploratory analysis of conflict-affected Sub-Saharan African states, this article demonstrates patterns consistent with the expectations of GDP Theory. By integrating feminist International Relations and political economy perspectives, the article provides a clearer understanding of how economic structures interact with gendered power systems to shape patterns of wartime violence.