BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature has not identified a clear relationship between military spending and the availability of natural resources. It has, however, focused on the ‘resource curse’ in defining the relationship between armed conflict and natural resources. The debate on the ‘resource curse’ is focused on the impact of natural resources on slowing economic growth (Sachs and Warner, 1995, 1999, 2001; Leite and Weidmann, 1999; Doppelhofer et al., 2000; Gylfason, 2001). It also found high poverty rates (Ross, 2003) and high corruption levels 1999; Leite and Weidmann, 1999; Sachs and Warner, 1999;