What are resource conflicts and where do they occur? Where do you find conflict resources? What are blood diamonds? What is the Kimberley Process and what other kinds of resource control regimes are there?

The module on Natural Resources provides answers to these and other questions by examining the three related topics of natural resources and their distribution, resource-related conflicts and resource control regimes.

The topic of natural resources and their distribution is divided into three chapters that examine the unequal global spread of different resources such as oil and gas, cocoa trees and cannabis. The distribution of natural resources results in economic and geopolitical power relations that have been and still are the cause of conflicting interests among countries. Access to these resources, along with the control and distribution of these resources to the actors involved are conflict-relevant issues. The topic on resource-related conflicts shows those conflicts that are linked to resources and the importance of certain resources for a country.

What is more, resource production often goes hand in hand with exploitation and human rights violations. For this reason, there are resource control regimes whose memberships are reviewed in the topic of the same name.