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The Limits of Securing and Marketizing Natural Resources and a Way Forward

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Peacebuilding and Natural Resource Governance After Armed Conflict

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Abstract

In this chapter, Beevers compares decade-long efforts to address natural resources after the armed conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It shows that international peacebuilders in both countries pursued a strategy to transform “conflict resources” into “peace resources” vis-à-vis a policy agenda that emphasized securitization and marketization. Beevers argues that while the worst of the resource plunder is over, a skewed approach to natural resource governance has recreated the conditions that historically created contention and violence around resources and runs the risk of exacerbating tensions. The chapter draws attention to the ways in which narratives about the links between natural resources, armed conflict and peace framed the policy agenda and brought to the forefront certain interventions but ignored others. The chapter concludes with practical recommendations for strengthening natural resources governance for peace that goes beyond Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, USA

    Michael D. Beevers

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  1. Michael D. Beevers
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Beevers, M.D. (2019). The Limits of Securing and Marketizing Natural Resources and a Way Forward. In: Peacebuilding and Natural Resource Governance After Armed Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63166-0_8

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