Natural Resources and Violent Conflict : Options and Actions

Bannon, Ian ; Collier, Paul

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: NATURAL RESOURCES;    VIOLENCE RESEARCH;    CONFLICT AREAS;    CONFLICT MANAGEMENT;    POVERTY INCIDENCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5503-1
RP-ID  :  28245

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Recent research undertaken by the Bankand others, suggest that developing countries facesubstantially higher risks of violent conflict, and poorgovernance if highly dependent on primary commodities.Revenues from the legal, or illegal exploitation of naturalresources have financed devastating conflicts in largenumbers of countries across regions. When a conflict erupts,it not only sweeps away decades of painstaking developmentefforts, but creates costs and consequences-economic,social, political, regional-that live on for decades. Theoutbreak of violent domestic conflict amounts to aspectacular failure of development-in essence, developmentin reverse. Even where countries initially manage to avoidviolent conflict, large rents from natural resources canweaken state structures, and make governments lessaccountable, often leading to the emergence of secessionistrebellions, and all-out civil war. Although naturalresources are never the sole source of conflict, and do notmake conflict inevitable, the presence of abundant primarycommodities, especially in low-income countries, exacerbatesthe risks of conflict and, if conflict does break out, tendsto prolong it and makes it harder to resolve. As theGovernance of Natural Resources Project (a research project)took shape, the discussion moved toward practical approachesand policies that could be adopted by the internationalcommunity. This book presents the papers commissioned underthe Governance of Natural Resources Project, offering a richarray of approaches and suggestions that are feeding intothe international policy debate, and hopefully lead, overtime to concerted international action, to help developingcountries better manage their resource wealth, and turn thiswealth into a driver of development rather than of conflict.