The Political Economy of Internal Conflict : A Comparative Analysis of Angola, Colombia, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka

This book unravels the way in which internal wars are funded and focuses on the various resources involved and the ways in which these are exploited by parties engaged in internal wars. The issues of ?blood diamonds? and war-related violent natural resource extraction have received much attention in the media. However, other important sources of income for fighting parties remain obscure. Drugs, kidnapping and extortion, as well as protection money, have become equally important. Therefore, this study of political economies surrounding protracted internal conflicts analyses the multiple strategies employed by warring factions to sustain their war efforts and demonstrates that material as well as non-material resources play a key role.

This book also highlights the role of middlemen and criminal networks that facilitate resource flows to and from conflict areas. Who are the actors involved, how are their networks organized, and to what extent are such war economies related to international multinational companies and the world market? The findings suggest actors engaged in these wars ruthlessly exploit natural resources and bypass international law. Additionally, massive population displacement and refugee flows result from these wars, leading to the destabilization of entire regions. The motives of actors involved in these protracted conflicts differ, but these conflict parties invariably depend on predation and violent extraction in order to survive. Although profits gained from war-related political economies may not be the ultimate motive for most factions and actors fighting these conflicts, they are largely responsible for their continuation. This book aims to provide input to the development of some kind of international framework that sanctions the predatory behaviour of all of the parties involved and effectively stops resource flows to and from conflict areas.

The study of ?Political Economies of Internal Conflict? on which this book is based forms part of an international research programme entitled ?Coping with Internal Conflict?, executed by the Conflict Research Unit of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ?Clingendael? and its counterparts in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. This analysis is based on the empirical case studies of four major protracted internal conflicts: Angola, Sierra Leone, Colombia and Sri Lanka.