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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Angola's Political Economy of War: The Role of Oil and Diamonds, 1975-2000
Author:Le Billon, PhilippeISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:100
Issue:398
Period:January
Pages:55-80
Language:English
Geographic term:Angola
Subjects:civil wars
diamond mining
petroleum
Politics and Government
Economics and Trade
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Military, Defense and Arms
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518372
Abstract:This article examines the significance of the political economy and geography of two valuable resources - oil and diamonds - for the course of the conflict in Angola. Matching the regional boundaries and ethnic differentiation articulated by the two competing parties, MPLA and UNITA, the spatial distribution of these abundant resources guided and financed their military strategies. The exploitation of oil and diamonds not only financed and motivated military operations beyond their Cold War and South African context, but also affected the legitimacy of the government and the economy. This conjunction of politics, geography, and military strategies sustained - and was sustained by - financial flows linking fighters and war-profiteers to markets in industrialized countries. International corporations and foreign powers, for a long time sheltered from the direct impact of the conflict, played an enabling role in the strategy of the belligerents. Detailing recent initiatives denouncing this role and attempts for reform, the article stresses the significance of resources in conflicts and calls for greater corporate and international responsibility in this regard during wartime and transition to peace. Notes, ref., sum.
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