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Resource war

August 19, 2023

A resource war is a type of war caused by conflict over resources. In a resource war, there is typically a nation or group that controls the resource and an aggressor that wishes to seize control over said resource. This power dynamic between nations has been a significant underlying factor in conflicts since the late 19th century.[1] Following the rise of industrialization, the amount of raw materials an industrialized nation uses to sustain its activities is heightened.[2]

History

Chincha Islands War

 
Illustration of the Chincha Islands of Peru, circa 1859

One of the most prolific examples of resource war in history is the conflict over Chincha Island guano in the late 19th century. The Chincha Islands of Peru are situated off of the southern coast of Peru, where many seabirds were known to roost and prey on fish brought there by the currents of the Pacific Ocean.[3] The guano of these seabirds is incredibly dense in nutrients and became a sought-after resource as a fertilizer.[4] Soil that was nutrient rich allowed for higher crop yields, which subsequently translated to better sustenance of the population and overall improved economic performance. Known colloquially as "white gold", guano from the Chincha Islands began to catch the interest of Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other industrial powers at the time.[5]

The international interest for that resource resulting in a number of conflicts including the Chincha Islands War between Spain and Peru and the War of the Pacific between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.[6] Although the primary inciting force of the conflict originated over possession of the nutrient-rich guano, Spain also attempted to exercise prior colonial control over Peru during its aggressions during this conflict. The Chincha Islands guano became a resource of imperialism with foreign nations inciting conflict and establishing dominion over it. In 1856, United States President Franklin Pierce passed the Guano Islands Act with the exclusive purpose of addressing American scarcity over guano.[7] Under the Guano Islands Act, any piece of uninhabited land that harbors a guano deposit could be claimed as a territory of the United States to extract the resource.[8] The legislation acted as a workaround for the United States to access Peruvian seabird guano since direct trade was not an option because of a treaty between Peru and the United Kingdom.[6]

Perspectives

Geopolitical

Under the geopolitical lens for interpreting resource wars, the main rationale behind resource conflict is strategic. It assumes that control over the resource provides a particular advantage to that nation and interprets hostile attempts to take over the resource as a means to acquire that advantage for themselves. Resources that are deemed strategic shift over time and pertain to what is required for economic expansion or success at the time. Examples of this include timber during the seventeenth century for naval development or oil during the twentieth century onward for enabling military technology and transportation.[9]

Environmental security

 
Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon at an NDP convention in British Columbia, circa 2007

Also known as the environmental scarcity or political economy, the environmental security perspective interprets resource conflict as a response to resource scarcity. A notable proponent of the environmental security perspective is Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon, a Canadian political scientist and professor at the University of Waterloo. The work of Homer-Dixon focuses on two different phenomena regarding the effect of resources on violent conflict: resource scarcity and resource abundance. Under the environmental security perspective, resource scarcity perpetuates conflict by inciting pressures on a society that is dealing with resource deprivation. According to Homer-Dixon, populations struggling with resource scarcity are also impacted by overpopulation and inequitable resource allocation.[10] Overpopulation and inequitable resource allocation can make resource scarcity even more pronounced, creating a cyclical instability in the society.[10]

Conversely, countries with natural resource abundance are impacted in a different way. Countries that are wealthy in resources have been shown to have disproportionate economic growth, less democracy, and overall insufficient development outcomes.[11] This permeates from an overdependence on their resource from an economic standpoint, where authoritarian traits may begin to take effect.[10] This creates pressure on the citizens as a whole due to undermined governance of the nation and volatile economic state if the resource fluctuates heavily in price.[12] This phenomenon is known as the resource curse.

Conflict resources

Conflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting.[13] There is both statistical and anecdotal evidence that the presence of precious commodities can prolong conflicts (a "resource curse").[14][15][16] An unfortunate irony is that many countries rich in minerals are impoverished in terms of their capacity for governance. Conflict, corruption and bribery may be seen as the typical costs of doing business.[17] The extraction and sale of blood diamonds, also known as "conflict diamonds", is a better-known phenomenon which occurs under virtually identical conditions. Also petroleum can be a conflict resource; ISIS used oil revenue to finance its military and terrorist activities. Other commodities are also involved in financing conflict. Apart from timber, wildlife, and oil Unruh describes how housing, land and property rights are transacted and used to fund armed conflict.[18]

History

The concept of 'conflict resource', or 'conflict commodity' emerged in the late 1990s, initially in relation to the 'blood diamonds' that were financing rebellions in Angola and Sierra Leone.[19] Then 'conflict timber' financed hostilities in Cambodia and Liberia.[20]

Conventions

The concept was first officially discussed by the UN General Assembly in the context of 'conflict diamonds':[21] The UN Security Council has since referred to conflict resources in several resolutions, particularly resolutions 1533 and I698.97.[22]

Since 1996 the Bonn International Center for Conversion has tracked resource governance and conflict intensity by country.[23] Aside from fossil fuels, metals, diamonds, and timber it tracks the governance of other primary goods that might fund conflicts, including: poppy seeds and talc (Afghanistan), rubber (Côte d'Ivoire), cotton (Zambia), and cocoa (Indonesia).

Legal frameworks

Main article: Conflict minerals law

Several countries and organizations, including the United States, European Union, and OECD have designated tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold connected to conflict in the DRC as conflict minerals and legally require companies to report trade or use of conflict minerals as a way to reduce incentives for armed groups to extract and fight over the minerals.

See also

References

  1. ^ Acemoglu, D.; Golosov, M.; Tsyvinski, A.; Yared, P. (2012-01-06). "A Dynamic Theory of Resource Wars". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 127 (1): 283–331. doi:10.1093/qje/qjr048. ISSN 0033-5533.
  2. ^ Bakeless, John (1921). The Economic Causes of Modern War: A Study of the Period: 1878-1918. New York: Moffat, Yard, and Company.
  3. ^ "The Hard Workers of the Peruvian Guano (The Chincha Islands), 2014". Agence VU'. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  4. ^ Durfee, Nell (2018-04-27). "Holy Crap! A Trip to the World's Largest Guano-Producing Islands". Audubon. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  5. ^ Mancini, Mark (2015-08-12). "How an Old Bird Poop Law Can Help You Claim an Island". Mental Floss. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  6. ^ a b Brazeau, Mark (2018-04-04). "Remember the Guano Wars". The Breakthrough Institute. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  7. ^ Underhill, Kevin (2014-07-08). "The Guano Islands Act". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  8. ^ Cornell Law School. "48 U.S. COde Chapter 8- GUANO ISLANDS". Legal Information Institute.
  9. ^ Le Billon, Philippe (2007). "Geographies of War: Perspectives on 'Resource Wars'". Geography Compass. 1 (2): 163–182. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00010.x – via Wiley.
  10. ^ a b c Homer-Dixon, Thomas (1994). "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases". International Security. 19 (1): 5–40. doi:10.2307/2539147. hdl:10535/2855. JSTOR 2539147. S2CID 154212598.
  11. ^ Smith, Benjamin; Waldner, David (2021-04-30). Rethinking the Resource Curse (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108776837. ISBN 978-1-108-77683-7. S2CID 233539488.
  12. ^ Norman, Catherine S. (2009). "Rule of Law and the Resource Curse: Abundance Versus Intensity". Environmental and Resource Economics. 43 (2): 183–207. doi:10.1007/s10640-008-9231-y. ISSN 0924-6460. S2CID 59417490.
  13. ^ p.8, Conflict and Development: Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Resolution; Sixth Report of Session 2005–06, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee, The Stationery Office, 2006
  14. ^ Philippe Le Billon, "Fuelling War: Natural Resources and Armed Conflicts", Adelphi Paper 373, IISS & Routledge, 2006.
  15. ^ Michael Ross,"How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases", International Organization, 2004.
  16. ^ James Fearon and David lotinakin "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War" American Political Science Review, 2003.
  17. ^ Agbiboa, Daniel Egiegba (2011-11-03). "Between Corruption and Development: The Political Economy of State Robbery in Nigeria". Journal of Business Ethics. 108 (3): 325–345. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1093-5. ISSN 0167-4544. S2CID 154968679.
  18. ^ Unruh, Jon (2022). "Housing, land and property rights as war-financing commodities: A typology with lessons from Darfur, Colombia and Syria". Stability: International Journal of Security and Development. 10 (10). doi:10.5334/sta.811. S2CID 247565996.
  19. ^ "'Blood diamonds' crackdown deal". BBC News. 28 June 2000. Retrieved 8 October 2020. Peter Hain: without blood diamonds, the war in Sierra Leone could not be financed... In the face of enormous suffering caused by the diamond-fuelled wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have a duty to ensure that we are doing as much as we can.
  20. ^ . Greenpeace UK. 7 May 2003. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  21. ^ UNGA Resolution 55/56 (2001) 2006-11-08 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Cassill, Deby L. (2014). "What can ants tell us about corporate social responsibility?". Handbook of Research on Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility: 269–287. doi:10.4337/9781783476091.00023. ISBN 9781783476091.
  23. ^ Accessible through . Archived from the original on 2011-01-22. Retrieved 2010-06-05.

August 19, 2023
resource, resource, type, caused, conflict, over, resources, resource, there, typically, nation, group, that, controls, resource, aggressor, that, wishes, seize, control, over, said, resource, this, power, dynamic, between, nations, been, significant, underlyi. A resource war is a type of war caused by conflict over resources In a resource war there is typically a nation or group that controls the resource and an aggressor that wishes to seize control over said resource This power dynamic between nations has been a significant underlying factor in conflicts since the late 19th century 1 Following the rise of industrialization the amount of raw materials an industrialized nation uses to sustain its activities is heightened 2 Contents 1 History 1 1 Chincha Islands War 2 Perspectives 2 1 Geopolitical 2 2 Environmental security 3 Conflict resources 3 1 History 3 2 Conventions 3 3 Legal frameworks 4 See also 5 ReferencesHistory EditChincha Islands War Edit Illustration of the Chincha Islands of Peru circa 1859One of the most prolific examples of resource war in history is the conflict over Chincha Island guano in the late 19th century The Chincha Islands of Peru are situated off of the southern coast of Peru where many seabirds were known to roost and prey on fish brought there by the currents of the Pacific Ocean 3 The guano of these seabirds is incredibly dense in nutrients and became a sought after resource as a fertilizer 4 Soil that was nutrient rich allowed for higher crop yields which subsequently translated to better sustenance of the population and overall improved economic performance Known colloquially as white gold guano from the Chincha Islands began to catch the interest of Spain the United Kingdom the United States and other industrial powers at the time 5 The international interest for that resource resulting in a number of conflicts including the Chincha Islands War between Spain and Peru and the War of the Pacific between Chile Bolivia and Peru 6 Although the primary inciting force of the conflict originated over possession of the nutrient rich guano Spain also attempted to exercise prior colonial control over Peru during its aggressions during this conflict The Chincha Islands guano became a resource of imperialism with foreign nations inciting conflict and establishing dominion over it In 1856 United States President Franklin Pierce passed the Guano Islands Act with the exclusive purpose of addressing American scarcity over guano 7 Under the Guano Islands Act any piece of uninhabited land that harbors a guano deposit could be claimed as a territory of the United States to extract the resource 8 The legislation acted as a workaround for the United States to access Peruvian seabird guano since direct trade was not an option because of a treaty between Peru and the United Kingdom 6 Perspectives EditGeopolitical Edit Under the geopolitical lens for interpreting resource wars the main rationale behind resource conflict is strategic It assumes that control over the resource provides a particular advantage to that nation and interprets hostile attempts to take over the resource as a means to acquire that advantage for themselves Resources that are deemed strategic shift over time and pertain to what is required for economic expansion or success at the time Examples of this include timber during the seventeenth century for naval development or oil during the twentieth century onward for enabling military technology and transportation 9 Environmental security Edit Dr Thomas Homer Dixon at an NDP convention in British Columbia circa 2007Also known as the environmental scarcity or political economy the environmental security perspective interprets resource conflict as a response to resource scarcity A notable proponent of the environmental security perspective is Dr Thomas Homer Dixon a Canadian political scientist and professor at the University of Waterloo The work of Homer Dixon focuses on two different phenomena regarding the effect of resources on violent conflict resource scarcity and resource abundance Under the environmental security perspective resource scarcity perpetuates conflict by inciting pressures on a society that is dealing with resource deprivation According to Homer Dixon populations struggling with resource scarcity are also impacted by overpopulation and inequitable resource allocation 10 Overpopulation and inequitable resource allocation can make resource scarcity even more pronounced creating a cyclical instability in the society 10 Conversely countries with natural resource abundance are impacted in a different way Countries that are wealthy in resources have been shown to have disproportionate economic growth less democracy and overall insufficient development outcomes 11 This permeates from an overdependence on their resource from an economic standpoint where authoritarian traits may begin to take effect 10 This creates pressure on the citizens as a whole due to undermined governance of the nation and volatile economic state if the resource fluctuates heavily in price 12 This phenomenon is known as the resource curse Conflict resources EditConflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting 13 There is both statistical and anecdotal evidence that the presence of precious commodities can prolong conflicts a resource curse 14 15 16 An unfortunate irony is that many countries rich in minerals are impoverished in terms of their capacity for governance Conflict corruption and bribery may be seen as the typical costs of doing business 17 The extraction and sale of blood diamonds also known as conflict diamonds is a better known phenomenon which occurs under virtually identical conditions Also petroleum can be a conflict resource ISIS used oil revenue to finance its military and terrorist activities Other commodities are also involved in financing conflict Apart from timber wildlife and oil Unruh describes how housing land and property rights are transacted and used to fund armed conflict 18 History Edit The concept of conflict resource or conflict commodity emerged in the late 1990s initially in relation to the blood diamonds that were financing rebellions in Angola and Sierra Leone 19 Then conflict timber financed hostilities in Cambodia and Liberia 20 Conventions Edit The concept was first officially discussed by the UN General Assembly in the context of conflict diamonds 21 The UN Security Council has since referred to conflict resources in several resolutions particularly resolutions 1533 and I698 97 22 Since 1996 the Bonn International Center for Conversion has tracked resource governance and conflict intensity by country 23 Aside from fossil fuels metals diamonds and timber it tracks the governance of other primary goods that might fund conflicts including poppy seeds and talc Afghanistan rubber Cote d Ivoire cotton Zambia and cocoa Indonesia Legal frameworks Edit Main article Conflict minerals law Several countries and organizations including the United States European Union and OECD have designated tantalum tin tungsten and gold connected to conflict in the DRC as conflict minerals and legally require companies to report trade or use of conflict minerals as a way to reduce incentives for armed groups to extract and fight over the minerals See also EditOil war Petro aggression Resource curse Territorial disputes in the South China Sea Water conflictReferences Edit Acemoglu D Golosov M Tsyvinski A Yared P 2012 01 06 A Dynamic Theory of Resource Wars The Quarterly Journal of Economics 127 1 283 331 doi 10 1093 qje qjr048 ISSN 0033 5533 Bakeless John 1921 The Economic Causes of Modern War A Study of the Period 1878 1918 New York Moffat Yard and Company The Hard Workers of the Peruvian Guano The Chincha Islands 2014 Agence VU Retrieved 2022 07 02 Durfee Nell 2018 04 27 Holy Crap A Trip to the World s Largest Guano Producing Islands Audubon Retrieved 2022 07 02 Mancini Mark 2015 08 12 How an Old Bird Poop Law Can Help You Claim an Island Mental Floss Retrieved 2022 07 02 a b Brazeau Mark 2018 04 04 Remember the Guano Wars The Breakthrough Institute Retrieved 2022 07 02 Underhill Kevin 2014 07 08 The Guano Islands Act Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved 2022 07 02 Cornell Law School 48 U S COde Chapter 8 GUANO ISLANDS Legal Information Institute Le Billon Philippe 2007 Geographies of War Perspectives on Resource Wars Geography Compass 1 2 163 182 doi 10 1111 j 1749 8198 2007 00010 x via Wiley a b c Homer Dixon Thomas 1994 Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict Evidence from Cases International Security 19 1 5 40 doi 10 2307 2539147 hdl 10535 2855 JSTOR 2539147 S2CID 154212598 Smith Benjamin Waldner David 2021 04 30 Rethinking the Resource Curse 1 ed Cambridge University Press doi 10 1017 9781108776837 ISBN 978 1 108 77683 7 S2CID 233539488 Norman Catherine S 2009 Rule of Law and the Resource Curse Abundance Versus Intensity Environmental and Resource Economics 43 2 183 207 doi 10 1007 s10640 008 9231 y ISSN 0924 6460 S2CID 59417490 p 8 Conflict and Development Peacebuilding and Post conflict Resolution Sixth Report of Session 2005 06 Great Britain Parliament House of Commons International Development Committee The Stationery Office 2006 Philippe Le Billon Fuelling War Natural Resources and Armed Conflicts Adelphi Paper 373 IISS amp Routledge 2006 Michael Ross How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War Evidence from Thirteen Cases International Organization 2004 James Fearon and David lotinakin Ethnicity Insurgency and Civil War American Political Science Review 2003 Agbiboa Daniel Egiegba 2011 11 03 Between Corruption and Development The Political Economy of State Robbery in Nigeria Journal of Business Ethics 108 3 325 345 doi 10 1007 s10551 011 1093 5 ISSN 0167 4544 S2CID 154968679 Unruh Jon 2022 Housing land and property rights as war financing commodities A typology with lessons from Darfur Colombia and Syria Stability International Journal of Security and Development 10 10 doi 10 5334 sta 811 S2CID 247565996 Blood diamonds crackdown deal BBC News 28 June 2000 Retrieved 8 October 2020 Peter Hain without blood diamonds the war in Sierra Leone could not be financed In the face of enormous suffering caused by the diamond fuelled wars in Sierra Leone Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo we have a duty to ensure that we are doing as much as we can Liberian conflict timber faces trade ban Greenpeace UK 7 May 2003 Archived from the original on 20 May 2011 Retrieved 8 October 2020 UNGA Resolution 55 56 2001 Archived 2006 11 08 at the Wayback Machine Cassill Deby L 2014 What can ants tell us about corporate social responsibility Handbook of Research on Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility 269 287 doi 10 4337 9781783476091 00023 ISBN 9781783476091 Accessible through the BICC Resource Conflict Monitor Archived from the original on 2011 01 22 Retrieved 2010 06 05 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Resource war amp oldid 1168054833, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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