Fuelling War

A generous endowment of natural resources such as oil, diamonds or timber should, in theory, favour a country's rapid economic and social development. And yet from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf to the diamond mines of West Africa, millions of people in resource-rich countries have seen their lives devastated. The experience of many resource-rich developing countries points to a paradox: compared to less well-endowed countries, they have been on average poorer, less competently governed and more frequently affected by war. In the most dramatic cases, resources have sustained authoritarian and corrupt regimes resulting in armed conflicts. Since the end of the Cold War, natural resources have provided the bulk of the revenues financing wars in developing countries. For many armed groups, accessing resource revenues has become an end in itself, with violence and the context of war providing the means to achieve it. Access to international markets has allowed countless armed groups to prosper from legally traded resources, and military interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been tainted by the plunder of valuable resources.
This text unveils the vulnerability of populations in resource-dependent countries. It recommends reform of international natural resource governance to prioritize the basic needs and security of these populations.