The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines natural resources as “materials that occur in nature and are essential or useful to humans.” This includes, for instance, oil, gas, metals, gemstones, water and wildlife. Most communities, from small towns to large countries, experience disagreement over the use of natural resources. These conflicts are usually manageable but sometimes they break out in violence. Competition over the control of oil production has helped fan the violence among the Kurds, Sunni, and Shiites in Iraq, for instance. In other cases, the parties to a dispute have used natural resources to sustain the conflict. In Angola, the government used oil revenues to fund its side of the civil war while rebels used diamond sales to fund their efforts. On the other hand, natural resources can also be a means to bring parties together. Among the most successful examples of cooperation in the Middle East are the water-sharing agreements between Israel and Jordan. In another example, land contested between Peru and Ecuador has been turned into a peace park to commemorate the end of the fighting.

As countries emerge from conflict, they frequently must make important decisions about the future of natural resource development in order to create a sustainable peace. Who owns the natural resources and who has the ability and the right to develop them? Who should benefit from their development? How should the revenue that these resources bring be fairly shared? This task is often complicated by the fact that control of natural resources sometimes lies at the heart of the conflict. If the conflict is international, issues of sovereignty and national pride can further confound the task of post-conflict peacebuilding.

In a 1500-word essay, state what you believe are the necessary elements for the development of fair, peaceful, or effective use of natural resources after a conflict. Analyze two case studies that illustrate your arguments by selecting two foreign conflicts in which natural resources have played a part. Of the two foreign conflict situations, at least one must have begun in or after 1990.

• Describe the role natural resources played in each conflict.
• Explain how the issues of natural resources were resolved or attempted to be resolved in the settling of each conflict.
  • What are the similarities and differences between the two cases you have chosen?
  • Was one settlement more successful than the other? Why?
• Based on your analysis, give your recommendations for how countries coming out of conflict can resolve issues around natural resources in order to build a lasting peace, and how the international community can help in that effort.