Paper short abstract:

Based on five months of fieldwork in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, this paper examines the role of marijuana as both a livelihood strategy and an integral part of the region’s war economy. By doing so, this paper seeks to contribute new insight to current resource war debates.

Paper long abstract:

Current international attention towards Congo's resource wealth, which has focused largely and detrimentally on a few key mineral resources notably coltan, gold, and cassiterite, has not only narrowed the resource war debate, it has severely undermined the role of other forms of natural resource wealth - with serious implications for peace in the region. A series of failed policy prescriptions aimed at the mineral trade has done little to reduce violence in the region and as some argue have actually increased violence against civilians while worsening local livelihoods. Such evidence, together with recent calls for scholarship linking a wider repertoire of natural resources and violent conflict, beyond minerals, demonstrate a growing need for more nuanced theoretical and empirically grounded work. Yet despite increasing support for expanding the resource wars thesis, studies examining how different resources variously impact violence remain largely absent. This paper begins to fill this gap by exploring one of the most poorly understand and theoretically understudied forms of natural resource wealth, the trade in marijuana. Based on five months of qualitative fieldwork in eastern DRC's South Kivu Province, this paper examines the role of marijuana as a livelihood strategy for a diverse set of actors including civilians and armed actors, and as an integral part of the region's war economy as both a tool of warfare as well as a means of war. By doing so this paper seeks to shed new light on contemporary resource wars debates and contribute practical solutions for ending violence in the region.