ABSTRACT
Since the early 1990s, the relationship between natural resources and armed conflict has been a recurring topic in the policy and scholarly worlds. “Conflict diamonds” and the complicity of companies in conflict economies have made headline-grabbing news, and the role of resources in financing belligerents has placed natural resources at the heart of discussions at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). In academia, natural resources have come to occupy a central place in explaining conflict dynamics, as a source of both means and motives in the use of armed violence. While natural resource wealth has found its way onto the political and research agendas for different reasons, all the reasons converge on a single point: natural resource wealth is a problem because it allows and sustains armed conflict, and thereby creates an obstacle to peacemaking.
