Providing both a means and a motive for armed conflict, the continued access of combatants in contemporary civil wars to lucrative natural resources has often served to counter the incentives for peace. Profiting from Peace offers the first comprehensive assessment of the practical strategies and tools that might be used effectively, by both international and state actors, to help reduce the illicit exploitation of natural resources and the related financial flows that sustain the violence.
The late Karen Ballentine was most recently senior consultant to the New Security Program at the FAFO Institute for Applied International Studies. Previously she was senior associate at the International Peace Institute, heading the Program on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars. Her publications include The Politi Academycal Economy of Armed Conflict: Beyond Greed and Grievance (with Jake Sherman). Heiko Nitzschke works for the German Foreign Service.
"This is probably the most comprehensive work to date about the resource dimension of intrastate wars."—Bjørn Møller, Economics of Peace and Security Journal
"Likely to become a main reference point in the resource and conflict literature.... To date the most ambitious—and successful —attempt to address the wide variety of tools available for policymakers to reduce the negative effects of natural resource endowments like diamonds, oil and timber."—Henrik Urdal, Journal of Peace Research
"This seminal book offers a wealth of insight into the multiple ways that multinational corporations, financial and commodity markets, and global trade feed into today's civil and regional wars.... It is a 'must read' not only for scholars and practitioners of conflict management, but also for students of international business and those in corporate boardrooms."—Fen Osler Hampson, Carleton University
"This important book offers sensible and practical steps that we in the international community can take to ensure that natural resources become a source of wealth and development rather than impoverishment and destruction."—Ian Bannon, World Bank
"Profiting from Peace focuses on solutions instead of causes—on curbing the financial flows that fuel so many wars in the developing world, on corporate responsibility and attacking the culture of impunity. It will surely become essential reading for all students of contemporary warfare."—Andrew Mack, University of British Columbia
