From political economies of war to political economies of peace: The contribution of DDR after wars of predation

Abstract

Can disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) be a means to ‘jump start’ a transition to a political economy for peace? This essay considers the key groups targeted in DDR – individual fighters, middle-level officers and leaderships – and each element of a DDR campaign with a focus on political economy issues. This leads to suggestions for reorienting some elements of DDR campaigns to place more emphasis on looking after middle-ranked officers, for the international community to place much emphasis on an often under-resourced part of the process, reintegration, and for more parallel attention to dealing with illicit economic activities.

Acknowledgments

This essay is a contribution to the UK Economic and Social Research Council funded project Res. 223-25-0071, ‘Transformation of War Economies’, at <http://www.research.plymouth.ac.uk/twe/mainframe.html>. Early iterations were presented at seminars at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and FAFO, Norway and in March 2005 at the International Studies Association annual conference, Hawaii. The author is grateful for the feedback she received from these audiences and for the comments of the anonymous readers.

Notes

1. Much of the debate over ‘war economies’ was sparked by the work of a team from the World Bank led by Paul Collier. See in particular: Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, ‘On Economic Causes of Civil War’, Oxford Economic Papers, Vol.50, No.4 (1998), pp.563–573; Mats Berdal and David M. Malone (eds.), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000). Amongst the responses to this macro-economic approach to understanding internal conflicts are: Karen Ballentine and Jake Sherman (eds.), The Political Economy of Armed Conflict: Beyond Greed and Grievance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003); Cynthia Arnson and William Zartman, Rethinking the Economies of War: The Intersection of Need, Creed and Greed (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005); Paul Richards, Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth, and Resources in Sierra Leone (Oxford: James Currey, 1998). For a fine-grained analysis of how a war economy affects a state, see Peter Andreas, ‘The Clandestine Political Economy of War and Peace in Bosnia’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol.48 (2004), pp.29–51.

2. Neil Cooper, ‘State Collapse as Business: The Role of Conflict Trade and the Emerging Control Agenda’, Development and Change, Vol.33, No.5 (2002), pp.935–955; Karen Ballentine and Heiko Nitzschke, Profiting From Peace: Managing the Resource Dimensions of Civil War (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005).

3. Virginia Haufler and Karen Ballentine, ‘Enabling Economies of Peace: Public Policy for Conflict-Sensitive Business’ (United Nations Global Compact, May 2005).

4. Anke Hoeffler and Paul Collier, ‘Greed and Grievance in Civil Wars’, Oxford Economic Papers, Vol.56 (2004), pp.663–595.

5. Jonathan Goodhand, ‘Afghanistan’, in Michael Pugh and Neil Cooper with Jonathan Goodhand, War Economies in a Regional Context: Challenges of Transformation (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004).

6. Pierre-Antoine Braud, ‘DDR and the “Private Sector”: A Forgotten Player’, Background paper for the Government Offices of Sweden's Stockholm Initiative on Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration (SIDDR) Midterm review meeting, hosted by the International Peace Academy, New York, 10–11 May 2005.

7. Karen Ballentine and Heiko Nitzschke, ‘The Political Economy of Civil War and Conflict Transformation’, in Martina Fischer and Beatrix Schmelzme (eds.), Transforming War Economies: Dilemmas and Strategies, Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series, No.3 (Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, 2005), p.12.

8. Daniel Bergner, In the Land of Magic Soldiers: A Story of White and Black in West Africa (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), p.13.

9. William Reno, Warlord Politics and African State (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), p.125.

10. William Reno, ‘Foreign Firms and the Financing of Charles Taylor's NPFL’, Liberian Studies Journal, Vol.18, No.2 (1993), pp.175–188; Douglas Farah and Shaoli Sarkar, ‘Following Taylor's Money: A Path of War and Destruction’, Coalition for International Justice (Washington, DC: Coalition for International Justice, 2005); John-Peter Pham, Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State (New York: Reed Press, 2004), pp.120–124.

11. William Reno, ‘Reinvention of the African Patrimonial State: Charles Taylor's Liberia’, Third World Quarterly, Vol.16, No.1 (1995), p.113.

12. David Keen, ‘Incentives and Disincentives for Violence’, in Mats Berdal and David M. Malone (eds.), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000), p.25.

13. Pham, Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State, p.137. ECOMOG is the Economic Community of West African States Military Observer Group; ULIMO is the United Liberian Movement for Democracy.

14. Agence France Presse, ‘Liberia: Bryant Marks 100 Days, To React with “Force” for Smooth Peace Process’, AFP World Service, 21 January 2004.

15. Valerie Thorin, ‘The New Forces on the Verge of Schism’, Jeune Afrique-L'Intelligent, 22 February 2004. FBIS translated text, FBIS-AFR-2004-0228.

16. Ballentine and Nitzschke, ‘The Political Economy of Civil War’, p.19.

17. The pioneering studies of these issues were the series of books published from 1995 onwards by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in the series ‘Managing Arms in Peace Processes’, a program under the direction of Virginia Gamba; Joanna Spear, ‘The Disarmament and Demobilisation of Warring Factions in the Aftermath of Civil Wars: Key Implementation Issues’, Civil Wars, Vol.2, No.2 (Summer 1999), pp.1–22.

18. Robert Perito, Where is the Lone Ranger When You Need Him? (Washington, DC: USIP, 2004).

19. For example, Christian Aid was involved in a ‘Swords into Ploughshares’ program in Mozambique.

20. ‘Ivorian Premier Diarra Says Disarmament Starts 8 March; 10,000 Affected in Bouake’, Radio France International, 20 February 2004, FBIS Report, FBIS-AFR-2004-0221.

21. Agence France Presse, ‘UN Tightens Security Along Sierra Leone-Liberia Border to Prevent Arms Smuggling’, AFP World Service, 16 December 2003.

22. Paul Collier, ‘Demobilization and Insecurity: A Study in the Economics of the Transition From War to Peace’, Journal of International Development, Vol.6, No.3 (1994), pp.343–351.

23. ‘World Bank Aid For Angola’, BBC News, 18 April 2003, at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2958973.stm>(accessed 12 April 2004); Justin Pearce, ‘Angola's Momentous Year’, BBC News, 31 December 2002, at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2617361.stm>(accessed 12 April 2004).

24. Mark Knight and Alpaslan Özerdem, ‘Guns, Camps and Cash: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion of Former Combatants in Transitions from War to Peace’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol.41, No.4 (2004), pp.508–509.

25. Justin Pearce, ‘Angolans Face Hard Road Home’, BBC News, 30 September 2002, at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2288031.stm>(accessed 12 April 2004).

26. Bonn International Center for Conversion and Institute for Security Studies, ‘Sustaining the Peace in Angola: An Overview of Current Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration’, BICC Paper 27 (March 2003), p.26.

27. Deborah D. Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

28. Markus Kostner, A Technical Note on the Design and Provision of Transitional Safety Nets for Demobilization and Reintegration Programs (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001), p.1.

29. Lotta Hagman and Zoe Nielsen, ‘A Framework for Lasting Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Crisis Situations’, Workshop Report (New York: International Peace Academy, December 2002), p.2.

30. International Crisis Group, Rebuilding Liberia, p.7, citing an ICG interview with a senior UNMIL official, Freetown, December 2003.

31. ‘Liberia: Still Too Soon For IDPs To Return Home?’, Global IDP Project, 30 September 2004, p.1, at <http://www.idpproject.org> (accessed 1 October 2004).

32. Kees Kingma (ed.), Demobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Development and Security Impacts (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), cited in Knight and Öxerdem, ‘Guns, Camps and Cash’, pp.502–503.

33. BICC & ISS, Sustaining the Peace in Angola, p.22.

34. ‘Angola Rebels Ready For Demobilisation’, BBC News, 15 May 2002, at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1989035.stm> (accessed 12 April 2004).

35. Refugees International, ‘Angola: Women's Access to Demobilization and Reintegration Program Funding Essential’, 7 March 2003, Global IDP Database, at <http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/SearchResults/12A84DF1C711F45C12> (accessed 5 October 2004).

36. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’, S/RES/1325 (31 October 2000). Point 13 calls for ‘all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their dependants.’

37. Cited in: Institute for Security Studies, An Evaluation of the Post-Savimbi Peace Process in Angola Since February 2002: The Victor's Peace Treaty, 1 July 2004, p.107.

38. Jaremey McMullin, ‘Reintegration of Combatants: Were the Right Lessons Learned in Mozambique?’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.4 (Winter 2004), p.630.

39. Victor Kamara, ‘Accelerated Dynamics of Resettlement in Emerging from Conflict Sierra Leone’, Conflict and Stability in West Africa Field Study Report, Sahel and West Africa Club, SAH/D (2004) 545, December 2003, p.26.

40. Daniel Ayalew, Stefan Dercon and Pramila Krishnan, ‘Demobilization, Land and Household Livelihoods: Lessons from Ethiopia’, Paper presented at the United Nations University/WIDER project meeting on Underdevelopment, Transition and Reconstruction in Sub-Saharan Africa (Helsinki, April 1999), p.16.

41. Hagman and Nielsen, ‘A Framework for Lasting Disarmament’, p.4.

42. Rosemary Preston, Demobilizing and Integrating Fighters After War: The Namibian Experience (Warwick: International Centre for Education in Development, 1994), pp.12–13.

43. Valerie Thorin, ‘The New Forces on the Verge of Schism’, Jeune Afrique-L'Intelligent, 22 February 2004. FBIS translated text, FBIS-AFR-2004-0228.

44. Abidjan Le National, ‘DDR: Big Utopia?’, 2 March 2004. A pro-government newspaper, discussed in ‘Highlights: Cote d'Ivoire Press Editorials, Commentaries 02 March 04’, FBIS Report, FBIS-AFR-2004-0302.

45. Abidjan Le National, ‘DDR: Big Utopia?’

46. International Crisis Group, ‘Côte d'Ivoire: No Peace in Sight’, ICG Africa Report, No.82 (Dakar/Brussels: ICG, July 2004), p.8.

47. Ibid., p.13.

48. Vanessa Farr, ‘The Importance of a Gender Perspective to Successful Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Processes’, Disarmament Forum, No.4 (2003), United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, pp.25–35.

49. Quoted in: ‘Cote d'Ivoire: Unicorn Spokesman Denies France Planned To Assassinate Gbagbo’, Le Patriote (Abidjan), 5 January 2004. FBIS translated text, FBIS-AFR-2004-0105.

50. Solo Kelgbeh writing in The Inquirer (Monrovia), 9 December 2003. Featured in ‘Liberia Press 09 Dec 03’, FBIS Report, FBIS-AFR-2003-1228.

51. Cited in, Agence France Presse, ‘Liberian Fighters Demonstrate to Demand Money Prior to Disarmament’, AFP World Service, 8 December 2003.

52. Agence France Presse, ‘Liberia: UN Announces Disarmament Campaign Postponement to 20 Jan’, AFP World Service, 15 December 2003.

53. Agence France Presse, ‘UN Mission Sets “New Timetable” for Disarmament Campaign in Liberia’, AFP World Service, 9 December 2003.

54. Ibid.

55. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Liberia: UN Opens Last Disarmament Site in Harper’, 30 September 2004, at <http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID = 43446> (accessed 5 October 2004); ‘Funmi Olonisakin and Abiodun Alao, ‘Explaining Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration in Liberia’, in Ann Fitz-Gerald and Hilary Mason (eds.), From Conflict To Community: A Combatants Return to Citizenship (Shrivenham: Global Security Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, 2005), at <http://www.gfn-ssr.org/ebooks_pages.cfm?b = 7>.

56. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Liberia: Taylor Loyalist Recruits Liberians to Fight in Guinea – Ex-Combatants’, 22 September 2004, at <http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID = 43308> (accessed 5 October 2004).

57. Jim Wurst, ‘Mozambique Disarms’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol.50, No.5 (September/October 1994), pp.37–40.

58. ‘Liberia: Still Too Soon For IDPs To Return Home?’, Global IDP Project, 30 September 2004, p.1, at <http://www.idpproject.org> (accessed 1 October 2004).

59. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Liberia: Taylor Loyalist Recruits Liberians’.

60. ‘Liberia: Still Too Soon For IDPs To Return Home?’, p.7.

61. E. Date-Bah, Jobs After War: A Critical Challenge in the Peace and Reconstruction Puzzle (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2003).

62. McMullin, ‘Reintegration of Combatants’, p.631.

63. Peter Gastrow and Mosse, ‘Organised Crime, Corruption and Governance in the SADC Region’, presented at the Institute for Security Studies regional seminar, Pretoria, 18–19 April 2002. Cited in McMullin, ‘Reintegration of Combatants’, p.631.

64. Tsepe Motumi and Andrew Hudson, ‘Rightsizing: The Challenges of Demobilisation and Social Reintegration in South Africa’, in Jakkie Cillers (ed.), Dismissed: Demobilisation and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Africa (Pretoria: Institute for Defence Policy, 1995), pp.117–118.

65. Helmoed-Römer Heitman, ‘South African Forces Meet New Challenge’, Jane's Defence Weekly, Vol.26, No.18, 30 October 1996, pp.23–25.

66. Karen Ballentine and Heiko Nitzschke, ‘Reply To Our Discussants’, in Fischer and Schmelzme (eds.), Transforming War Economies, p.71.

67. See for example: Reuters, ‘Colombia Guerilla Wants Congress Seats’, CNN.com, 12 December 2005, at <http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/12/colombia.paramilitaries.reut/index.html?section = cnn_latest> (accessed 12 December 2005).

68. International Crisis Group, ‘Rebuilding Liberia: Prospects and Perils’, ICG Africa Report No.75, 30 January 2004, p.i.

69. Daniel Large (ed.), Corruption in Post War Reconstruction: Confronting the Vicious Circle (Transparency International Lebanon), at <http://www.transparency-lebanon.org/Publications/PWR/1.pdf>.

70. This section is largely derived from: Michael J. Dziedzic, ‘Policing From Above: Executive Policing and Peace Implementation in Kosovo’, in Renata Dewan (ed.), Executive Policing: Enforcing the Law in Peace Operations, SIPRI Research Report No.16 (Stockholm and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp.44–47. However, I do not accept the definitions of the white, grey and black economies that Dziedzic works with (categorizing primarily in terms of the content of the trade), preferring to categorize by who trades, rather than what is traded.

71. Ibid., p.45.

72. Olu Arowobusoye, ‘Why They Fight: An Alternative View On The Political Economic of Civil War and Conflict Transformation’, in Fischer and Schmelzme (eds.), Transforming War Economies, p.41

73. ‘Liberia: Study Sees Risk of New War Unless Corruption Stamped Out’, IRIN News, 7 September 2005, at <http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID = 48948&SelectRegion = West_Africa&SelectCountry = LIBERIA>.

74. ‘Liberia: Donors Spell Out Harsh Consequences if Anti-Graft Plan Not Agreed’, IRIN News, 8 September 2005, at <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.asp?ReportID = 48967>.

75. William G. O'Neill, ‘Police Reform in Post-Conflict Societies: What we Know and What we Still Need to Know’, International Peace Academy Policy Paper (April 2005), p.3.

76. Stephen John Stedman, ‘Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes’, International Security, Vol.22, No.2 (1997), pp.5–53.

77. McMullin, ‘Reintegration of Combatants’, p.634. RENAMO is the Resistência Nacionale Moçambicana.

78. Hagman and Nielsen, ‘A Framework for Lasting Disarmament’, p.6; Ayalew et al., ‘Demobilization, Land and Household Livelihoods’.

79. Agence France Presse, ‘Liberia: Disarmament Condition for Disbursement of Pledged Reconstruction Fund’, AFP World Service, 4 February 2004.