State Collapse as Business

The Role of Conflict Trade and the Emerging Control Agenda

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3885191
AutoresNeil Cooper (0000-0003-1834-279X, University of Plymouth, autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume33
Fascículo5
Páginas935-955
Data de publicação2002-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-7660.t01-1-00255
OpenAlexW2134719212
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas9

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

Development economics · Dominance (genetics) · Economics · Free trade · Globalization · International trade · Market economy · Mercantilism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Salience (neuroscience) · State (computer science) · Superpower · Trade war · Vulnerability (computing) · International Development and Aid · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · World Systems and Global Transformations