Natural resources, armed conflicts, and the UN Security Council
Philippe Le Billon, Liu Faculty, UBC
May 30, 2007
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has taken an unprecedented number of measures to tackle links between natural resources and armed conflicts over the past decade. The main goal of these measures was to curtail access to revenues by targeted groups. Natural resources do not have the monopoly on war financing, but this priority reflected a growing trend of resource-funded hostilities since the 1980s. Two other goals have informed Security Council initiatives: limiting wartime resource exploitation to benefit the population after the conflict, rather than belligerents during the conflict; and reforming resource sectors to prevent conflicts and consolidate peace.
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