Rethinking Resource Conflict
Publisher: World Bank
Author(s): John-Andrew McNeish
Date: 2010
Topics: Conflict Causes, Conflict Prevention, Extractive Resources
In this thematic paper I will reconsider the connections between natural resources and conflict. Aimed at producing a state of the art review of the research on the connections between natural resources and conflict, the paper will outline and discuss the mainstream theories and policy initiatives that have been created to address this issue. The paper underlines in line with Rosser (2006) and Wennmann (2007) that whilst there is, as the general consensus of scholarship suggests, considerable evidence that natural abundance is associated with various negative development outcomes, this evidence is by no means conclusive. Whilst recognizing the value of existing ideas and practices, in highlighting the lack of consensus, gaps and weaknesses of current theoretical and practical approaches, the paper suggests that other complementary approaches need be developed. It is argued that this demands an extension beyond what have almost exclusively been macroeconomic and national governance studies and initiatives, to approaches that qualitatively acknowledge the role of historic grievances and conflicting resource sovereignties. In stressing the social nature of economy and state, and the often inconclusive and ideological nature of existing theories and policy, the paper proposes the need for recognition of a new socio-economics of resource governance.
The paper‘s review of current short and mid-term policy initiatives reveals a developing corpus of relevant solutions, but also the limited impact of the international community through anti-corruption and transparency measures.