The Finance Sector and Conflict
The liberalization of global trade and investment has led to an unprecedented upsurge in trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The finance sector (including banks, insurance companies and asset managers) is central to global trade and FDI flows. Their investment choices and business conduct can have a crucial impact on security in the developing world.
IISD's work examines the links between the finance sector and conflict, and identifies several areas where novel financial products could be utilized to reduce conflict vulnerability and strengthen post-conflict reconstruction.
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Investing in Stability: Conflict Risk, Environmental Challenges and the Bottom-Line (PDF - 1.4 mb)» Jason Switzer, 2004 The aim of this paper is to stimulate debate on the interactions between finance and conflict, and to explore opportunities to improve financial institutions' management of these interactions. Concerning itself principally with voluntary actions, this collection of papers seeks to identify mechanisms whereby firms could help to reduce the economic drivers and impacts of violence and terrorism, in areas where profitability and social responsibility align.
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Insuring the Peace: managing political risk for sustainable development (PDF - 458 kb)» Jason Switzer, 2002 A summary of an informal session held in Rio de Janeiro in Spring 2002 to introduce leading financial institutions to the challenges posed by the changing nature of conflict and to identify potential areas for investors to contribute to peacebuilding.
Key Publication
Trade, Aid and Security: An agenda for peace and development
» Oli Brown, Mark Halle, Sonia Peña Moreno, Sebastian Winkler, Earthscan, 2006.Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur. All resonate loudly on the international stage, exposing and illustrating the intractable links among global security, war and conflict, the control over natural resources—be they oil, water, timber or "conflict diamonds"—and the deployment of aid money and the manipulation of international trade policies. This volume, written by leading authorities from across the globe, introduces the linkages among trade, aid and security, and exposes how inappropriate or misused trade and aid policies can and do undermine security and contribute to violence and the disintegration of nation states. On a practical level, they demonstrate how six key areas of trade and aid policy can be used to help forge stability and security, reduce the likelihood of armed conflict and assist economic and political recovery in our war-torn world. Foreword by Lloyd Axworthy. More...
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