Fafo-report 424

Leiv Lunde and Mark Taylor, with Anne Huser

Commerce or Crime?

Regulating Economies of Conflict. Economies of Conflict: Private Sector Activity in Armed Conflict

ISBN 82-7422-414-0
2003 62 s kr 162,- Ordrenr: 424 Bestilling

Web edition (pdf 556kb) * More publications on this subject

Economies of Conflict: Private Sector Activity in Armed Conflict

Programme for International Co-operation and Conflict Resolution

What constitutes unacceptable economic activity in a war zone? What should communities, companies or governments reasonably expect in terms of economic behaviour in situations of conflict? Commercial secrecy and the fog of war make these difficult questions to answer, but the interests of governments, companies and affected communities make it imperative that we try.

Commerce or Crime? looks at the phenomenon of conflict trade and suggests a way forward. The report presents a framework for the analysis of economic activity in war zones, analyses the politics of attempts to regulate the problem and argues for a normative approach in building policy and law to deal with the worst abuses.

The report was commissioned by the Fafo AIS Programme for International Co-operation and Conflict Resolution as part of the Economies of Conflict project

1 Introduction

2 Mapping Conflict Trade
2.1 Coercion
2.2 Anarchy
2.3 Criminality

3 Regulating Conflict Trade
3.1 A Malign Problem Structure
3.2 Challenges to Regulation

4 The move to regulate
4.1 A Continuum of Regulatory Options

5 Where do we go from here?

Appendix A Knowledge Inputs to Policy
References
About the Authors