Natural Resource-Based Global Conflicts and Post Conflict Peace Building
Publisher: IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology
Author(s): Siakilo Emmanuel, Mulongo S. Leonard, Chebon Richard, and Biwott Gladys
Date: 2015
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Renewable Resources
Extensive literature has explored the link between natural resources and conflicts. Nevertheless, scholars have rarely reached a univocal agreement and a common theoretical understanding on this interrelation. In this thematic paper, I reconsider the connections between natural resources and global conflict. Aimed at producing a state of the art review of the research on the connections between natural resources and conflict, the paper outlines and discusses 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.