Workshop Beyond the Resource Curse: 3-4 November 2011, Paris

This November I will attend a workshop called "Beyond the Resource Curse: New Dynamics in the Management of Natural Resources: New Actors and Concepts. The workshop will be organized by the European Science Foundation, the University of Amsterdam, and Modus Operandi and will take place in Paris on the 3rd and 4th of November 2011.

The workshop will explore the new international and national power relations that result from a recent increase of demand from China and India. It will analyze the impact of the arrival of new players on international agreements and on state-society relations in resource-rich countries. My contribution will concern the effectiveness of UN sanctions on Liberia, Angola, and the DRC Congo.

Although the imposition of UN sanctions is not directly related to the rising power of China and India, these countries have an increasing impact on Africa. By 2007 the amount of FDI ($1,57 billion) was twenty times the size of that of 2003, only four years earlier. Although India has also increased its share in trade with Africa, their trade only represents about a third of the Chinese trade. Angola has become the biggest deliverer of oil to China, supplying China with 2.12 millions of tons of crude oil per month in 2006.

In return, China has invested heavily in projects of infrastructure, public buildings, housing, and agricultural projects like irrigation systems. As a result, Angola has also become Africa´s largest oil-producer, beating Nigeria with almost 2.000.000 barrels per day in 2009, although production has fallen to 1.6 million bpd in 2011.

For the workshop I have prepared a short discussion paper that discusses the impact of Chinese FDI on Africa. It argues that the Chinese strategy of investing in Africa differs from the Western way of investing in Africa. The main difference is that Western investments, much like aid, is given with several political conditions that focus on the development of institutions and the rule of law. Chinese investments rather go to more tangible projects such as the building of hospitals, roads, airports etc. The Chinese bring in lots of own laborers and do not discriminate between democratic governments and rogue states led by dictators. The full discussion paper can be found through this link.

My presentation at the workshop will however be based on an older article, prepared for a conference in Madrid earlier this year. It is based on my post-graduate thesis written at the University of Valencia and concerns the effects of sanctions in Angola, Liberia, and the DRC Congo. Although the role of China does not stand central in this paper, the increasing assertiveness of China has also changed the configuration of UN sanctions. The Chinese are not very fond of imposing sanctions or intervening in other countries´ domestic affairs. This has affected the way sanctions have been designed and implemented in the way that they have become ´weaker´ and that they have been imposed with a delay. My presentation at the workshop will address these issues and will be based on this article.