Payoff of Promises: Articulating, Negotiating, and Implementing Wealth-Sharing

Led by Scott Gates
Jan 2008 – Dec 2010

Project funded by the Research Council of Norway

The primary objective of this project is to trace dynamics of peacebuilding, emphasizing wealth-sharing. We will examine the cases of Burundi, Nepal, Nigeria and Sierra Leone across the phases of peacebuilding: from the initial stages of disagreement and clashes, through peace agreements, to the post-agreement implementation of wealth-sharing and distributive measures. The process that we are studying can be divided into three phases: Promise, Peace and Payoff. In the project, we examine:

• How and why do rebel group promises transmute or transform during the negotiation process, and what types of promises are eventually included in peace agreements?

• What happens if rewards based on original promises from rebel groups do not satisfy the accumulated expectations of rebel group supporters?

• What are the implications of distributive and redistributive aims in peace agreements?

• What role does the international community play in this dynamic? What can donors do to facilitate wealth-sharing?

Publications in the pipeline:

Binningsbø, Helga Malmin & Siri Aas Rustad, 2011. ‘Sharing the Wealth: A Pathway to Peace or a trail to Nowhere?’, Unpublished manuscript. CSCW/PRIO.

Rustad, Siri Aas & Helga Malmin Binningsbø, 2011. ‘A Prize worth Fighting for? Natural Resources and Conflict Recurrence’, Unpublished manuscript. CSCW/PRIO.

Members
Publications

Members

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Article

Gates, Scott; Halvard Buhaug & Päivi Lujala (2009) Geography, Rebel Capability, and the Duration of Civil Conflict, Journal of Conflict Resolution 53(4): 544–569.

Gates, Scott & Christopher K. Butler (2009) Asymmetry, Parity, and (Civil) War: Can International Theories of Power Help Us Understand Civil War?, International Interactions 35(3): 330–340.

de Soysa, Indra & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2009) The Devil's Excrement as Social Cement: Natural Resources and Political Terror, 1980–2002, International Social Science Journal 57(1): 21–32.

Dupuy, Kendra & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2009) Using Power-Sharing to Win a War: The Implementation of the Lomé Agreement in Sierra Leone, Africa Spectrum 44(3): 87–107.

Lujala, Päivi (2009) Deadly Combat over Natural Resources: Gems, Petroleum, Drugs, and the Severity of Armed Civil Conflict, Journal of Conflict Resolution 53(1): 50–71.

Larsen, Wenche; Siri Aas Rustad; Nils Petter Gleditsch & Jan Ketil Rød (2008) Foliage and Fighting: Forest Resources and the Onset, Duration, and Location of Civil War, Political Geography 27(7): 761–782.