Economic Resources and Conflict between Communities - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal Module SP-6003B Total Word Count: 2206 Contents Research problem 3 2.Significance of Research Problem 3 3.Context of Research Problem 4 4.Introductory Essay 4 5.Description of Proposed Research 8 a.Methodology 8 b.Feasibility 9 6.Projected Results 10 References 11 Section One: 1. Research problem What is the interrelationship between distribution of economic resources and conflict between communities, regionally, or even at the global level? 2. Significance of Research Problem There is a dare need that world governments embark on developing effective responses to challenges resulting from the competition for natural resources in the current fast changing global economy. The competition for resources seems set to continue into the future mainly because of the increasing demographic pressures. Projections into the future indicate that the world population could escalate to aver 9.3 billion before 2050 (Verstegen 2009). With the anticipated population increase, governments now consider natural resources as a major security issues. To many, natural resources are a vital resource for development and seems as the sole sure path to poverty reduction and economic growth. The increased awareness of the correlation between natural resources, security, and conflict continues to serve as reinforcement for the perception that natural resources are now a security issue (Bannon and Collier 2003 ). While appreciating that there are other drivers, this proposal suggests a detailed research to establish the interrelationship between distribution of economic resources and conflict. A succinct understanding of this relationship is considered necessary especially when formulating and implementing policies to mitigate the risk of conflict whether within a country or region. Limited knowledge of the correlation has resulted into misaligned policies and strategies that fail to achieve their objectives on prevention of conflicts related to natural resources distribution. 3. Context of Research Problem The contemporary society is concerned that tension and conflicts continue to persist despite the formulation and implementation of conflict prevention policies in various world regions and countries. Much has been done to combat conflicts although researchers have shown that tensions and threat of violence are still high. An understanding of the correlation between conflicts and various drivers is considered as a vital step towards sustainable conflict prevention strategies and policies (Odhiambo 2011). It is necessary that the society adopt strategies that comprehensively address regional conflicts regardless of the dynamics of the contemporary world. All aspects of life are experiencing fast changes largely because of globalization. This research proposal in an attempt to establish the linkage between natural economic resources and conflicts presents a succinct literature review, research methodology, and possible results in subsequent sections. The literature refers to earlier research studies to give insight on how different regions and countries have attempted to resolve and prevent conflicts related to natural resources usage and exploitation. The section is developed to show why it is necessary to conduct further research in order to formulate effective conflict prevention policies and strategies. A sample of 29 respondents from various parts of the world is recommended to ensure that the researcher gets a global perception of resources-related conflicts before drawing any conclusions or making recommendations. 4. Introductory Essay The relationship between natural resources and conflicts in the contemporary society is increasingly becoming a security challenge in the contemporary world. This report suggests a research proposal that would yield an effective strategy to overcome the challenge of security concerns arising from the use and exploitation of natural resources in the various parts of the world. The new strategy is expected to combine current policy tools, establish new approaches to balance the imperatives of securing the right to explore and use natural resources, and prevent and resolve related conflicts (Anderson, Gauthier, Thomas, and Wondellock 2011). Arriving at such a desirable approach, however, requires the understanding of conflict and security challenges associated with the use of natural resources. It is also necessary to have good knowledge of how different regional unions are using various strategies and policy tools to mitigate the risk. The fact that principal policy responses, for instance Kimberly Process Certification Scheme have failed to fully meet their objectives shows that further research is necessary. There is an urgent need to research and understand the key drivers of conflict, tweak existing countermeasures, and develop implementable complementary responses especially for regions that experience deadly conflicts. Resource distribution, control, and access are affected by factors such as social relationships, global economic and political as well as environmental changes. Often, these changes lead to conflicting demands, interests, and needs. In pursuit to keep pace with the changes in the contemporary society, some societies tend to undermine traditional and indigenous practices that helped to prevent or resolve conflicts whenever some occurred. Earlier researchers have emphasized that conflict management, being a multidisciplinary research field, requires members of the global community to build upon common interests and determining points of agreement (Bannon and Collier 2003 ). The conflict management intervention is a proactive-reactive continuum where the proactive end involves embracing productive collaboration and communication among concerned parties, addressing possible causes of conflict and developing trust and understanding to prevent reoccurrence of conflicts. Collaborative planning is necessary to prevent conflicts that may result from government policies or actions (OLear and Tuten 2013). Reactive conflict management approaches include negotiation, conciliation, mediation, and consensus building (Garrett and Piccinni, 2012). To arrive at a reasonable solution to conflicts, knowledge of the causes and dynamics of contemporary conflicts is crucial lest the tension persists. In East Africa, communities have made commendable progress towards conflict resolutions. The region has persistently experienced tension and conflicts over natural resources, a situation that has persisted for the entire period the countries have been independent from colonialism. In attempts to resolve the conflicts over natural resources, the situations are analyzed from historical developments to determine the main situations and causes (Odhiambo 2011). The evolution of the conflicts over time is traced and a reasonable policy or legal suggestion made. For an insight on conflicts within the region, therefore, one must follow the historical, social, political, and economic context within which the conflict occurred. Ownership policies particularly on natural resources have progressively shifted towards privatization in pursuit for complementation of economic policies in the region’s countries. This has resulted in private land tenure gradually replacing communal tenure and hence weakened traditional practices (Odhiambo 2011). Therefore, it is necessary to research with a focus to reveal the dynamics of conflicts especially in this era of globalization. State effectiveness is often referred whenever people talk about governance of natural resources and conflict management within a given country or within a region. In the European Union, the establishment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has made most stakeholders to become optimistic that conflicts related to natural resources can be mitigated or prevented with ease (Verstegen 2009). The slow progress and at times lack of commitment in many of the natural-resources rich countries to implement policies such as the EITI suggests that future policies must be designed in accordance with various government structures (Malley, U, Taeb, Matsumoto, and Takeya 2008). These need to be researched in details to ensure that future policies hit the nail by the head. Climate change, for instance is an under-research dimension of the security and conflict challenges emanating from distribution, exploitation, and use of natural resources. The perceived significance of climate change to scientists, voters, and the public in general shows that it is crucial to understand the correlation between the same (climate change) and resources-related conflict challenges (Malley, U, Taeb, Matsumoto, and Takeya 2008). Insight into that will help to ensure that regions such as the EU device and implement reliable mitigation strategies that guarantee a long-term solution. Currently, most regional unions such as the EU draw on broad though inconsistent and hence ineffectively coordinated scope of strategies and policies to manage resources-related conflict challenges. The need for urgency in the alignment and coordination of conflict prevention and management policies and strategies is underlain by cases where regional trade objectives and development priorities seem to contradict. In the EU, these contradictions have been cited to undermine the region’s integrity as a normative global power committed to good governance, the rule of law, democracy, and the ultimate protection of human rights (Verstegen 2009). Like any other region and even countries, the EU has to formulate workable policy proposal on the exploitation of natural resources that provides a framework aligning the various security, diplomatic, trade, development instruments, and climate change. The proposal must define strategic objectives with the overarching goal of addressing regional resources-related security or conflict challenges while ensuring sustainable access to the same resources. 5. Description of Proposed Research This research seeks to analyze ad determine the causes and dynamics of conflicts in the contemporary global setting with a focus on distribution of economic resources as a driver of conflict. Knowledge of the linkages between these two, natural resources and conflict, is sought to serve as a springboard to understanding the dynamics. The researcher will have to draw their conclusion depending on information gathered from different parts of the world to have a holistic overview of the subject. a. Methodology Since it is not necessary to visit different parts to collect the information, the researcher will engage 29 university students to give their insight through an online questionnaire. Gender sensitivity will be ensured by having 15 male and 14 female participants. Ten of these will be from countries in the European Union. European Union has lately been vocal on conflicts resulting from competition for resources hence the need to have the region well represented. Seven of these will be from Asia. The researcher will have to give preference to those from Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. These are countries that have been warring for decades with natural resources being the main cause of conflict. Other seven participants will have their home in Africa particularly countries in Eastern Africa and West Africa. Five participants selected randomly will also participate in the study. These may come from any part of the world. The researcher will administer online questionnaires that will prompt respondents to give a detailed insight on how regional conflicts have been resolved in their respective regions and countries. The questionnaires will also prompt respondents to describe how various conflicts were linked or associated with natural resources. Each of the participants will be prompted to conduct intensive historical follow up on conflicts in their regions and give their personal input depending on real life experiences. Further, Participants will have two weeks to complete and submit their filled in questionnaires. The researcher will make follow up on progress after engaging and issuing the questionnaires. This will help to ensure that respondent work on their questionnaires throughout the two weeks rather than waiting to complete the questionnaires at the last minute. That will help to ensure quality and reliable information is collected. It will be appropriate to give incentives to participants for engaging in the intensive study. The incentives, however, will depend on participant’s commitment and rigorousness of their work in filling questionnaires. The incentives will not be a pay for participation but an appreciation since participants will be asked to participate voluntarily. The researcher will have to mention this prior to the commencement of the exercise. b. Feasibility Participants will submit their filled in questionnaires by mailing them to the researcher after the two weeks period. The researcher will then sample them according to the regions where respondents come from. Questionnaires from respondents from the same country will be sampled together although they will still fall under the specific regional category. With that, the researcher will be able to single out questionnaires that carry deceitful information if any. People from the same region should report common incidences of conflicts as much as they may differ on other details. Inputs from different respondents will help the researcher to identify misalignments in policy and strategies used in various regions. Respondents are likely to give their perceptions, which will be crucial information for the researcher. For purposes of accuracy in findings and hence credibility of the research, a through desktop research to confirm the inputs of all respondents will complement the information derivable from the questionnaires. The researcher should volunteer up to 2 months to compile a final report. 6. Projected Results The research methodology is designed such as to avoid biasness in the findings. Deviation from these suggested possible results of the study is allowed because the methodology is not doctored to give certain results but a factual solution to the research problem. The researcher, however, should expect results as follows. Natural resources are a major conflict financier because unions such as the EU have repeatedly engaged military on several instances to manage conflicts related to natural resources. Military combats have been used in countries such as DRC during the Mobutu regime, Ukraine and Moldova in 2005 and in Libya lately in 2011 (Anderson, Gauthier, Thomas, and Wondellock 2011). The researcher may also realize that indirect mechanisms like high rent-seeking behaviors affect quality of governance in countries that are rich in natural resources. This may lead to grievances based conflicts because of lack of socioeconomic and equitable growth. Increased international competition over access and use of natural resources in the current multi-polar global economy is now a cause of interstate tensions that may become a major conflict drive in the near future. The increasing number of restrictions on exports and access to natural resources suggest that international relations are exposed to tensions that may turn out to be deadly conflicts. References Anderson J, Gauthier M, Thomas G and Wondellock A 2011, November 13, Addressing Natural Resource Conflicts through Community Forestry: Setting the Stage, FAO Corporate Document Repository, Viewed February 21, 2014, Bannon I and Collier P 2003, Natural Resources and Violent Conflict, World Bank Publications, New York. Garrett N and Piccinni A 2012, Natural Resources and Conflict Prevention, A New Security Challenge for EU , 37-44. Malley Z J, Taeb M, Matsumoto T, and Takeya H 2008, Linking perceived land and water resources degradation, scarcity and livelihood conflicts in southwestern Tanzania: implications for sustainable rural livelihood, Environment, Development and Sustainability , 349-372. Mildner S A, Lauster G, and Wodni W 2011, Scarcity and Abundance Revisited: A Literature Review on Natural Resources and Conflict, International Journal of Conflict and Violence , 156-172. Odhiambo M O 2011, Addressing Natural Resource Conflicts through Community Forestry: The Case of Eastern Africa: FAO Corporate Document Repository, Viewed February 21, 2014, http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac697e/ac697e13.htm OLear S, and Tuten A H 2013, Environment and Conflict: Security, Climate Change, and Commodity Resources, The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations , 97-109. Verstegen S, 2009, The Causes And Dynamics of Poverty-Related Conflict, In Understanding the Drivers of Conflicts (pp. 113-117), Netherlands Institute of International Relations: Clingendael. Read More