Conflict Trade

* Follow the How illegal trade, smuggling and money laundering finance terror Today's warlords -- governments and terrorists alike -- use global financial and commodity markets to transform their control of natural resources into war-fighting capacity. Under the secrecy provided by war, legally or illegally produced commodities -- such as diamonds and oil -- are traded on the legitimate but unregulated global markets. The profit from this trade is used to obtain weapons and other war materials. This is conflict trade. Trade has always been a part of war, but only now are the economic dimensions of conflicts at the top of the international agenda -- the result of increasing concerns about the dark side of globalization. "Conflict Trade" collects the analysis of expert researchers with direct experience of specific sectors. Across industry-specific chapters -- including diamonds, timber, global banking, oil and private military companies -- the contributors show how stolen commodities are laundered, and how this is crucial to the vicious cycle of war that has sustained untold human suffering the world over. Crucially, they also reveal how this trade has spawned hundreds of companies, both legal and illegal, which could not exist in the absence of war and corruption. As business is increasingly deregulated, there are more opportunities for these companies to profit from war. The contributors outline possible solutions and ways forward.