Read all posts for ‘diamonds’

This is a long version of the answer that Tom Hoefer (Executive Director, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Chamber of Mines) gave us for the Lead Article A Zero-Sum Game? which deals with the following question: Rapid globalization makes competition for land, raw materials and other resources intense. When the stakes are so high, can rural, […]

Natural and agricultural resources for which there is a substantial black market, such as coca, opium, and diamonds, appear especially likely to be exploited by the parties to a civil conflict. On the other hand, these resources may also provide one of the few reliable sources of income in the […]

Some scholars suggest that the Middle East’s oil wealth helps explain its failure to democratize. This article examines three aspects of this “oil impedes democracy” claim. First, is it true? Does oil have a consistently antidemocratic effect on states, once other factors are accounted for? Second, can this claim be […]

The Kimberley Process (KP) is a joint governments, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds – rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments. read more

Global Witness carries out investigations, overt and covert, to advocate for policy change in the resource sector. read more