ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to survey risk factors of conflict recurrence—those related to natural resources as well as those not directly related to them. It offers a number of natural resource policy recommendations to local stakeholders, policy makers, and the international community to make the transition from conflict to peace possible, and to ultimately avoid conflict recurrence. The main risks discussed here are: natural resource dependence; environmental change; poverty and low or declining economic growth; intergroup inequalities; youth bulges; and crime. The pillaging of natural resources, such as gems, timber, and oil, is a common characteristic of most conflict economies. Most important, dependence on natural resource production weakens state structures that redistribute wealth, and the state is thus less able to provide public goods. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the role of institutions and the state in the transition from conflict to peace.
