Humanities & Social Sciences
April 2020
Different Resources, Different Conflicts?
The Subnational Political Economy of Armed Conflict and Crime in Colombia
by Angelika Rettberg, Ralf J. Leiteritz, Carlo Nasi, Juan Diego Prieto (eds.)
This book explores some of the risks associated with sustainable peace in Colombia. The book intentionally steers away from the emphasis on the drug trade as the main resource fueling Colombian conflicts and violence, a topic that has dominated scholarly attention. Instead, it focuses on the links that have been configured over decades ofarmed conflict between legal resources (such as bananas, coffee, coal, flowers, gold, ferronickel, emeralds, and oil), conflict dynamics, and crime in several regions of Colombia. The book thus contributes to a growing trend in the academic literature focusing on the subnational level of armed conflict behavior. It also illustrates how the social and economic contexts of these resources can operate as deterrents or as drivers of violence. The book thus provides important lessons for policymakers and scholarsalike: Just as resources have been linked to outbreaks and transformations of violence, peacebuilding too needs to take into account their impacts, legacies, and potential.
