Lecture Week 4

Question 1

Whats the difference between greed and grievance?

Answer 1

Greed is about economic incentives and grievance is about exclusion, structural causes and oppression

Question 2

How are economic incentives drivers of conflict, use examples.

Answer 2

The American Revolution: a battle between the British and the French for commodities and trade routes
The Finnish-Soviet war: prompted by Stalin’s quest for Nickel
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait: seen as an attempt to gain control of the latter’s oil reserves
Resource-rich countries with high poverty levels are prone to war (e.g., Iraq, Angola, Liberia, DRC)

Question 3

How has the focus on resources changed in the late 1990s?

Answer 3

Natural resources like daimonds, oil, gold, tantalum, etc. are often in the hands of armed actors and are therefore called conflict minerals. Policymakers encourage therefore policy to promote transparant resource government.