Date of Award
12-2024
Document Type
Campus Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Global Governance and Human Security
First Advisor
Samuel Barkin
Second Advisor
Stacy D. VanDeveer
Third Advisor
Darren Kew, Kendra Dupuy
Abstract
Conflict resources, understood here as illicitly traded natural resources that contribute to conflict and violence, remain a concerning global security challenge, particularly in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. This project traces how illicit natural resource trade contributes to violence and conflict in DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda from a holistic perspective, considering various types of resources and actors, and how their interactions collectively contribute to violence in the region. The goal is to better understand not only how illicit natural resource trade contributes to violence, but also to highlight prevailing misconceptions that inform ineffective interventions and prolong insecurity experienced by civilians. The data for this project came from a review of United Nations Group of Experts reports on conflict in the region from 2001-2022, supplemented by observation and semi-structured interviews on the ground in Kampala, Uganda from 2018-2019. This project found that common approaches to conflict resources, such as focusing on particular products, types of actors, or relationships to violence, fall short of capturing the extent and reality of illicit natural resource trade. Actors who trade in illicit resources do not appear to specialize in specific products, but rather maintain a portfolio of illicit resource options to exploit depending on opportunities and circumstances. Actors who exploit illicit resources also span a wide range of identities and affiliations, including the commonly examined “rebel groups” as well as various types and ranks of state actors. This project also found that the range of violence experienced by civilians exceeds the narrow funding aspect that conflict resource literature tends to focus on. These findings demonstrate a need to re-examine how we define and approach conflict resources, and to expand our understanding of relationships between products, actors, and violence to better encompass all aspects of illicit natural resource trade. Narrow definitions that fail to capture reality experienced by people living alongside these trade networks will continue to inform ineffective interventions until they are corrected.
Recommended Citation
Holcombe, Linda, "Conflicted Resources: Revising the Concept of "Conflict" Resources through the Case of Central Africa" (2024). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. 1029.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/1029
Comments
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