Human Security and Sierra Leone's Post-Conflict Development by Wiafe-Amoako Francis;Mazrui Ali A.;

Author:Wiafe-Amoako, Francis;Mazrui, Ali A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Economic argument for onset of civil war

One of the reasons underlying the onset of civil conflicts is elites’ economic marginalization of the rest of the population from the share of the nation’s resources.[1] Others have taken the economic argument beyond the greed of political elite, and argued that civil wars also have their roots in world economy as a result of the intense global trade relationships between states.[2] Globalization has resulted in violence in certain types of states that possess raw materials that have high demand on the global market.[3] Again states that have experienced domestic wars have also had persistent economic declines.[4] States such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, which are mostly cited, had fundamental economic problems in the period leading to the internal conflicts. Individual incomes in particular and the gross domestic product (GDP) of these states in general consistently declined over the years leading to the onset of the civil war.[5]

The “greed and grievance” argument[6] is relevant in this instance regarding the extent to which individual economic insecurity could mutate and/or advance into a collective rallying point that could cut across ethnicities. Grievance, usually a bottom-up phenomenon, sheds more light on how consistent the exploitation and marginalization of a section of the population leads to a situation where these groups who fall below the law[7] and lose the protection of the law resort to heinous acts of violence.[8] Morgan Tsvangarai’s call for a massive protest against the Mugabe government after the disputed 2008 presidential elections was largely ignored by a large section of the Zimbabwean population. This include those that supported Tsvangarai and who have secured for themselves jobs either in the public or private sector, or have well-established self-employments.[9] Such actions cannot be described as acts of cowardice, though the article cites fear as a major factor for the protest boycott. However, it highlights the extent to which personal and stable economic securities could be a disincentive to violent acts that could culminate in political instability and civil conflicts.

People’s economic security, one of the important components of human security,[10] and which has also been identified in the UNDP human development report has positive impact on the overall domestic and world economies, and also in ensuring stable societies. World leaders struggled to deal with the recession that occurred in the third quarter of 2008 and well into 2009. Trillions of dollars in economic stimulus packages[11] were injected into the economies of states across the globe. The “ticking time bomb” scenario[12] was invoked by global leaders, and that the failure on the part of governments to inject massive amount of capital into their economies could eventually lead to an unprecedented global recession of greater magnitude not seen since the Great Depression. John Maynard Keynes seems to be winning the economic rescue argument. Keynesian economic models have become the “new normal” approach to tackling economic crisis. Even in pure capitalist states such as the United States, the government took control[13] of some banks and auto industries in 2009 and

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