Despite the pervasive trend in civil war of multiple sponsors backing rebels or the government, there is surprisingly minimal analysis on how the balance of support influences conflict duration. Building on the research of Sawyer et al. (2017), who find that the “fungibility” of external support leads to longer civil war, this thesis contributes a new scoring method for analyzing the balance of “fungible” (hereafter “convertible”) support among combatants (rebels versus government), discovering that a balance of convertibility contributes to shorter conflict. Convertible resources are those that combatants manipulate to enhance their warfighting capacity, such as funding, while troops or territory are less convertible since combatants can only use them in a specific context. A balance of convertible forces likely contributes to shorter conflict because both sides recognize the reduced likelihood of victory. Policymakers should thus carefully evaluate the support given to the opposition of the recipient they are backing.

This Honors Thesis project explores the fungibility of sin tax revenues in relation to K-12 public schools. Comparing Ohio and Colorado's revenues from nontraditional approaches (i.e. marijuana, casinos, and lottery revenues), I researched the reality and sustainability of these funding sources and the level to which they are receiving promised funds. This project evaluates if traditional funding reductions have occurred due to the addition of these nontraditional revenue streams. Also, an assessment is made of the moral implications brought forth through these nontraditional revenue streams educating the United States' K-12 students. My three primary conclusions were as follows: 1) even though every state does not actively move around funds, sin tax revenues are highly fungible; 2) while sin tax revenues may be a quick-fix funding initiative, they are not sustainable for long-term funding; 3) and funding K-12 public schools through sin tax revenues raises a number of moral issues, specifically the issue of teaching our children to not do the very activities that are helping fund their education.