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Description
This article argues that an emphasis on natural resources in conflict financing is unhelpful. Instead of focusing on individual methods of conflict financing, conflict economies should be approached as a combination of financing strategies. This opens new space for analyzing the vulnerability of organized armed groups. The article shows that organized armed groups are rational, have multiple sources of financing, and shift from one to another as a function of their needs. They operate in a structural environment that facilitates conflict financing. This challenges the effectiveness of multilateral policy against conflict financing and the viability of postconflict peacebuilding. If the availability of revenue sources can affect the dynamics of armed conflict, policy against conflict financing holds a promising potential for peacebuilding. KEYWORDS: political economy of conflict, conflict financing, natural resources, organized armed groups, peacebuilding.
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The literature on the political economy of conflict has contributed to our understanding of the processes and dynamics of contemporary armed conflict. (1) The literature is based on an understanding of conflict as a process of social transformation in which violence is functional. It seeks to contradict claims that liken armed conflict to a new form of barbarism in which violence is inherent in every human being and thus is inevitable. (2) Natural resources have a prominent position within the political economy of conflict. (3) Over the past few years, analyses of the relationship between natural resources and armed conflict have generated much debate and critique and have contributed to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the issues and problems involved. (4) Nevertheless, the focus on natural resources as a financial source has led to a distorted understanding of the financing of contemporary armed conflict. While natural resources undoubtedly play a great role in some conflicts, in others they are of minor importance or only one of the methods of conflict financing.
This article argues that an emphasis on natural resources is unhelpful in developing a better understanding of the larger phenomenon of conflict financing. (5) A focus on natural resources does not adequately reflect that most armed conflicts involve multiple methods of financing. An understanding of conflict financing that goes beyond natural resources is thus required. Although much of the literature on the political economy of conflict is devoted to natural resources and conflict economies, little has been written on conflict economies as a combination of various methods of financing conflict. Such a comprehensive approach opens new space to help analyze the vulnerability of organized armed groups with respect to multilateral initiatives against conflict financing and provides insights into the viability of postconflict peacebuilding. The challenge for policy is to deal with organized armed groups that are rational, have multiple sources of financing, and shift from one to another as a function of their need. They operate in a structural environment that facilitates conflict financing characterized by the persistence of weak states, willing collaborators, shadow economies, and open economies in developed countries. Identifying and tackling sources of conflict financing is a prerequisite for viable postconflict peacebuilding. If not, there is a risk that armed conflict will recur. If the motivation to organize armed conflict depends on the availability of financing, policy against conflict financing holds a promising potential.
The argument and implications in this article will be elaborated in three parts. The first part briefly reviews the literature on the political economy of conflict, natural resources, and conflict economies. The second presents a comprehensive approach to conflict financing. The third charts the implications of a comprehensive approach for policy. It makes reference to multilateral initiatives against conflict financing and postconflict peacebuilding, such as sanctions and the Kimberley process.
The Political Economy of Conflict and Natural Resources
The literature on the political economy of conflict emerged as a response to unsatisfying explanations for civil wars in the 1990s and the proliferation of nonstate actors in conflict areas. (6) While historical work on conflict economies and the early work on the political economy of conflict tended to be more comprehensive, the field began focusing on natural resources with the issue of conflict diamonds. (7) Henceforth, the literature grew in diversity and quality and the field became increasingly dominated by two research agendas. (8) The first agenda analyzes the relationship between development and civil war and its implications for conflict prevention. This work was channeled through the World Bank and given the label "greed and grievance." (9) The greed and grievance approach analyzes the factors conducive to predicting the onset of civil war. At its core are a number of relationships that predict the risk of civil war based on statistical models. The second agenda is the literature on economic agendas in civil war as exemplified by the work of the International Peace Academy. (10) This literature focuses on the economic agendas of belligerents and the dynamics of conflict in the context of globalization, transnational networks, and development. Rather than considering civil wars as chaos, the economic agenda approach depicts violence as functional. Belligerents benefit from the absence of legal authorities by accumulating economic rewards. Civil war is a process of social transformation in which people adapt their behavior in order to survive, minimize risk, and maximize opportunities. As a result, conflicts become increasingly protracted and determined by economic objectives.
While these two research agendas are methodologically and qualitatively distinct, they both focus primarily on the interaction between the internal dynamics of conflict and the global economy. Contemporary conflict is clearly embedded in regional and global networks and has effects beyond national borders in the form of refugee flows, the spread of disease, or economic shocks. (11) Moreover, both agendas are based on a rational and functional framework of social interaction. Actors are rational in the sense that they must organize financing to conduct armed conflict. Although ideologies or identities may be motivating factors, they still must coordinate the business of war in order to realize their military objectives. The literature particularly emphasizes the interplay between the motives of actors and the opportunity structure that enables or limits their choices. (12) The perception of violence as organized use of force is based on a functional approach to violence. (13) Armed conflict is a form of organizing violence on a large scale and is dependent on individuals who are mobilizing segments of society and external actors for war. (14) Approaching armed conflict from the perspective of organization makes the political economy of conflict literature a powerful tool. A functional perception of violence places responsibility on the individual actors who are in breach of domestic or international law.
The literature on the political economy of conflict devotes considerable attention to natural resources. There has been a great deal of work on individual commodities, such as oil, diamonds, drugs, coltan, and timber. (15) On the multilateral level, the issue of conflict goods gained prominence through various reports by the UN Security Council sanctions monitoring mechanism. The relationship between natural resources and armed conflict has previously been an issue in Marxist... |
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