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State Collapse as Business: The Role of Conflict Trade and the Emerging Control Agenda

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  • Neil Cooper

Abstract

This article examines the role played by conflict trade in the process of state collapse. Conflict trade is defined here as the trade in non–military goods such as diamonds, timber and drugs that finances war. Such trade includes both the export and import of goods to a war zone as well as extra–territorial trade undertaken by supporters of a warring faction. It is argued that the decline of superpower military aid coupled with the broader effects of centre–periphery exploitation mediated through a neo–liberal and western imposed version of globalization has meant such trade has a particular salience both in contemporary conflict and the process of state collapse. Equally, though, the reliance of warring factions on conflict trade means they are also susceptible to changes in the market for their goods, creating a vulnerability that can (and to some extent has been) exploited to promote peace. The emerging control agenda on conflict trade is currently characterized by a number of problems — most notably, the risk that the control of conflict trade might become a substitute for action on arms exports; that international action has largely been undertaken within an inappropriate statist paradigm; that control has sometimes taken second place to economic or strategic interests and that policy has become hostage to a ‘drugs and thugs’ agenda which risks undermining its effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Cooper, 2002. "State Collapse as Business: The Role of Conflict Trade and the Emerging Control Agenda," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 935-955, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:33:y:2002:i:5:p:935-955
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.t01-1-00255
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    Cited by:

    1. Vahabi,Mehrdad, 2019. "The Political Economy of Predation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107591370, October.
    2. Nora Stel, 2014. "Business in Genocide – Understanding the how and why of corporate complicity in genocides," Working Papers 2014/28, Maastricht School of Management.
    3. David M Malone & Heiko Nitzschke, 2010. "Economic Agendas in Civil Wars: What We Know, What We Need to Know," Working Papers id:3226, eSocialSciences.
    4. David M. Malone & Heiko Nitzschke, 2005. "Economic Agendas in Civil Wars: What We Know, What We Need to Know," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2005-07, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Sameeksha Desai & Zoltan J. Acs, 2007. "A Theory of Destructive Entrepreneurship," Jena Economics Research Papers 2007-085, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    6. Stel, Nora & Naudé, Wim, 2016. "Business in Genocide: Understanding and Avoiding Complicity," IZA Discussion Papers 9743, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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