Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:47:26.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Concealing Conflict Markets: How Rebels and Firms Use State Institutions to Launder Wartime Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Rachel Sweet Open the ORCID record for Rachel Sweet [Opens in a new window]
Get access

Abstract

Although rebel groups are players on the international stage, little is known about their financial strategies at this scale. Existing research suggests that rebels succeed in cross-border trade by using informal networks that evade state authority. Yet rebels face a critical challenge: they operate in a normative environment that values state recognition and penalizes their illegitimate status. New evidence reveals that rebels can overcome this barrier and better connect to global economies not by evading the state but by infiltrating its institutions. Drawing on unprecedented data—the internal records of armed groups and their trading partners—I examine how rebels use state agencies in conflict zones to manufacture a legal cover for wartime trade. By using state agencies to provide false certification, rebels can place the stamp of state on their trade deals. This strategy of legal appropriation is a fundamentally different model of how conflict markets skirt sanctions and connect to global buyers. I develop a framework for how this strategy works that traces how international sovereignty norms and sanctions regimes create incentives for rebels, firms, and bureaucrats to coordinate around this legal veneer across the supply chain. The framework and evidence contribute theoretical and policy understandings for rebel governance, state building and fragmentation, and illicit global markets.

Keywords

Illicit marketscivil warstate institutionsnatural resourcessovereignty normssanctionsAfricaconflict economiesDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Type
Research Note
Information
International Organization , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , Fall 2021 , pp. 1109 - 1132
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation, 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahram, Ariel, and King, Charles. 2012. The Warlord As Arbitrageur. Theory and Society 41 (2):169–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballentine, Karen, and Sherman, Jake, eds. 2003. The Political Economy of Armed Conflict: Beyond Greed and Grievance. Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Bartley, Tim. 2015. Looking Behind the Label: Global Industries and the Conscientious Consumer. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Charron, Andrea. 2011. UN Sanctions and Conflict: Responding to Peace and Security Threats. Routledge.Google Scholar
Chayes, Abram, and Chayes, Antonia. 1993. On Compliance. International Organization 47 (2):175–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Checkel, Jeffrey, ed. 2013. Transnational Dynamics of Civil War. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooley, Alexander, and Sharman, J.C.. 2017. Transnational Corruption and the Globalized Individual. Perspectives on Politics 15 (3):732–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuvelier, Jeroen, and Raeymaekers, Timothy. 2002. European Companies and the Coltan Trade: An Update. International Peace Information Service.Google Scholar
Englebert, Pierre. 2009. Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, Sorrow. Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Fazal, Tanisha. 2004. State Death in the International System. International Organization 58 (2):311–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Findley, Michael, Nielson, Daniel, and Sharman, J.C.. 2014. Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime, and Terrorism. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gleditsch, Kristian. 2007. Transnational Dimensions of Civil War. Journal of Peace Research 44 (3):293–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Jennifer. 2013. What Rebels Want: Resources and Supply Networks in Wartime. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey. 1989. The Creation and Maintenance of National Boundaries in Africa. International Organization 43 (4):673–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Reyko. 2016. Rebel Diplomacy in Civil War. International Security 40 (4):89–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis, and Balcells, Laila. 2010. International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict. American Political Science Review 104 (3):415–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klem, Bart. 2012. In the Eye of the Storm: Sri-Lanka's Front-Line Civil Servants in Transition. Development and Change 43 (3):695–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Melissa. 2018. The International Politics of Incomplete Sovereignty: How Hostile Neighbors Weaken the State. International Organization 27 (2):283–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lessing, Benjamin, and Willis, Graham. 2019. Legitimacy in Criminal Governance: Managing a Drug Empire from Behind Bars. American Political Science Review 113 (2):584–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindley, Anna. 2009. Between “Dirty Money” and “Development Capital”: Somali Money Transfer Infrastructure Under Global Scrutiny African Affairs 108 (433):519–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lujala, Päivil, Gleditsch, Nils Petter, and Gilmore, Elisabeth. 2005. A Diamond Curse? Civil War and a Lootable Resource. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 49 (4):538–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, James and Thelen, Kathleen. 2010. Explaining Institutional Change. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mampilly, Zachariah. 2011. Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life During War. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Meagher, Kate. 2014. Smuggling Ideologies: From Criminalization to Hybrid Governance in African Clandestine Economies. African Affairs 113 (453):497–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menkhaus, Kenneth. 2007. Governance Without Government in Somalia: Spoilers, State Building, and the Politics of Coping. International Security 31 (3):74–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukhopadhyay, Dipali. 2014. Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naylor, R.T. 2002. Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nordstrom, Carolyn. 2007. Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2016. OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. 3rd ed. OECD Publishing. Available at <http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264252479-en>.CrossRef.>Google Scholar
Parkinson, Sarah Elizabeth. 2013. Organizing Rebellion: Rethinking High-Risk Mobilization and Social Networks in War. American Political Science Review 107 (3):1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raeymaekers, Timothy. 2014. Violent Capitalism and Hybrid Identity in Eastern Congo: Power to the Margins. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reno, William. 2001. How Sovereignty Matters: International Markets and the Political Economy of Local Politics in Weak States. In Intervention and Transnationalism in Africa, edited by Callaghy, Thomas, Kassimir, Ronald, and Latham, Robert, 197–215. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reno, William. 2015. Predatory Rebels and Governance: The National Patriotic Front of Liberia, 1989–1992. In Rebel Governance in Civil War, edited by Arjona, Ana, Kasfir, Nelson, and Mampilly, Zachariah, 265–85. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Michael. 2004. How Does Natural Resource Wealth Influence Civil War: Evidence from Thirteen Cases. International Organization 58 (1):35–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salehyan, Idean. 2009. Rebels Without Borders: Transnational Insurgencies in World Politics. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sánchez de la Sierra, Raúl. 2017. On the Origins of the State: Stationary Bandits and Taxation in Eastern Congo. Working paper, University of California Berkeley.Google Scholar
Staniland, Paul. 2012. Organizing Insurgency: Networks, Resources, and Rebellion in South Asia. International Security 37 (1):42–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Alredo Rangel. 2000. Parasites and Predators: Guerrillas and the Insurrection Economy of Colombia. Journal of International Affairs 53 (2):577–60.Google Scholar
Sweet, Rachel. 2020. Bureaucrats at War: The Resilient State in the Congo. African Affairs 119 (475):224–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tull, Denis. 2003. A Reconfiguration of Political Order? The State of the State in North Kivu (DR Congo). African Affairs 102 (408):429–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UK Parliament. 2006. House of Commons Minutes of Evidence. HC 623-vii. 4 July.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2001a. Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in Democratic Republic of Congo. S/2001/357.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2001b. Report of the Panel of Experts on Democratic Republic of the Congo. S/2001/1072.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2002. Report of the Panel of Experts on Democratic Republic of the Congo. S/2002/1146.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2015. Report of the Panel of Experts on Central Africa Republic. S/2015/936.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2017. Report on the Panel of Experts on Yemen. S/2017/81.Google Scholar
US Government. 2010. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111–203, H.R. 4173. Section 1502: Conflict Minerals. Retrieved from <https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@swaps/documents/file/hr4173_enrolledbill.pdf>..>Google Scholar
US Government. 2013. SEC Conflict Minerals Rule: Information on Responsible Sourcing and Companies Affected. Government Accountability Office. Retrieved from <https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-13-689.pdf>>Google Scholar
Vwakyanakazi, Mukohya. 1991. Import and Export in the Second Economy in North Kivu. In The Real Economy of Zaire: The Contribution of Smuggling and Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth, edited by MacGaffey, Janet, 73–41. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Jeremy. 2007. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wennmann, Achim. 2012. The Role of Business in Armed Violence Reduction and Prevention. International Review of the Red Cross 94 (887):919–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zacher, Mark. 2001. The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use of Force. International Organization 55 (2):215–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Sweet supplementary material

Appendices A-C

Download Sweet supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 5.7 MB