Conflict goods: The challenges for peacekeeping and conflict prevention

Abstract

The role played by the trade in non‐military goods (conflict goods) in the promotion and perpetuation of conflicts is extremely important. This article begins by outlining a typology of the strategies used by actors in conflicts to exploit this trade for sustaining weapons acquisition and war economies. It is then argued that while strategies aimed at restricting the flow of conflict goods may represent a useful means of influencing the decisions of actors in conflict, it is also the case that the current international control agenda on goods such as diamonds and drugs raises several problems. There is the risk that the policy agenda will become hostage to the kind of ‘drugs and thugs’ bias that has hobbled progress on the control of small arms. There is the challenge of controlling conflict goods without hurting legitimate trade in the same goods. There is also the difficult question of whether to reward military leaders, as part of a deal to secure (an often tenuous) peace, by giving them a stake in the economic sectors that they had exploited to prosecute war. Finally, further research is needed on a holistic agenda for dealing with conflict goods, including the monitoring by peacekeepers and police of illicit trading.