War Economies and Post-conflict Peacebuilding : Identifying a Weak Link

While the international community has in the last several years appreciated the close links between conflict and natural resource exploitation, current efforts to transform war economies in postconflict peacebuilding fall short of the goal. This article charts the pervasive effects of war economies – and specifically lootable resources such as diamonds and timber – in post-conflict contexts, as well as the inclusion of natural resources in the language and implementation of United Nations mission mandates in countries where economic predation has played an important role. This preliminary mapping exercise of Cambodia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia highlights certain innovations in the UN’s approach, yet demonstrates that post-conflict war economies continue to jeopardise expensive and well-intentioned reconstruction activities like disarmament, demobilisation and reconstruction programmes, transitional justice and security sector reform.