Business and Conflict in Fragile States

Large-scale investments in fragile states - in Latin America, Africa, the former Soviet Union and Asia - become magnets for conflict that undermines business, development, security, and state-building goals. Drawing on decades of experience from mainstream conflict prevention and violence reduction efforts as well as promising company practice, this book shows that even acute conflict is manageable when dealt with pragmatically, locally, and on its own terms.

Brian Ganson, JD, is Head, Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement and Extraordinary Associate Professor, University of Stellenbosch Business School, Cape Town, South Africa. His research and consulting with multinational companies, governments, community advocates and human rights defenders focus on the nexus of business, conflict and development. Achim Wennmann is Senior Researcher at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva; and Executive Coordinator of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. He is author of The Political Economy of Peacemaking.

Introduction: New lenses on business and conflict in fragile states 1. Predatory companies in fragile states 2. Business and peaceful development in fragile states 3. The changing landscape of business and conflict in fragile states 4. The limits of state-building 5. Responses to conflict that work Conclusion: The case for pragmatic solutions