IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/gigawp/132.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fuel for Conflict or Balm for Peace? Assessing the Effects of Hydrocarbons on Peace Efforts in Algeria

Author

Listed:
  • Shabafrouz, Miriam

Abstract

This paper explores the use of hydrocarbon revenues in post-conflict Algeria. While the bloody years of the 1990s now seem to be over, recurring terror attacks and the ongoing state of emergency leave room for doubt that a situation of stable peace has been achieved yet. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of post-conflict peace-building efforts in Algeria and identify ways of improving these measures. The resources, which are mainly controlled by the central state, can have positive and negative effects on the political economy: they can enhance growth and possibilities for the distribution of wealth, but the dependency on them makes the whole economy vulnerable to crises. Analysing the economic (and other) causes of the outbreak of the intra-state war in 1992 and the reasons for its escalation and its fading out can be revealing when assessing the extent to which critical conditions have or have not been addressed by recent and current peace-building efforts. The author's analysis reveals that the measures taken by the government - such as implementing a programme of national reconciliation, the stimulation of certain sectors of the economy and the resolute reduction of foreign debt - all aim at stabilization and have all been driven by hydrocarbon income to a large extent. However, the recent rise and sudden drop in the price of oil and gas have both had an effect on the scope of these measures and reveal their limits. Moreover, some of the critical causes of the civil war such as the unfair distribution of revenue, the lack of political participation and destabilizing demographic changes still persist and have largely remained unaddressed. One of the author's concluding assumptions therefore is that it is very likely that the use of resource revenues for conflict prevention and peace-building will only lead to sustainable results when embedded in full-fledged reforms of Algeria's entire economic and political system.

Suggested Citation

  • Shabafrouz, Miriam, 2010. "Fuel for Conflict or Balm for Peace? Assessing the Effects of Hydrocarbons on Peace Efforts in Algeria," GIGA Working Papers 132, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/47812/1/630630216.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shabafrouz, Miriam, 2010. "Oil and the Eruption of the Algerian Civil War: A Context-sensitive Analysis of the Ambivalent Impact of Resource Abundance," GIGA Working Papers 118, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Flemes, Daniel & Wojczewski, Thorsten, 2010. "Contested Leadership in International Relations: Power Politics in South America, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa," GIGA Working Papers 121, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Auty, R. M., 2003. "Third time lucky for Algeria? Integrating an industrializing oil-rich country into the global economy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1-2), pages 37-47.
    4. Kohnert, Dirk, 2009. "Democratisation via elections in an African 'narco state'? The case of Guinea-Bissau," MPRA Paper 19109, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Lowi,Miriam R., 2009. "Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521113182, Enero-Abr.
    6. Matthias Basedau & Jann Lay, 2009. "Resource Curse or Rentier Peace? The Ambiguous Effects of Oil Wealth and Oil Dependence on Violent Conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 46(6), pages 757-776, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mähler, Annegret & Shabafrouz, Miriam & Strüver, Georg, 2011. "Conflict Prevention through Natural Resource Management? A Comparative Study," GIGA Working Papers 158, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Khaldoon A. Mourad & Helen Avery, 2019. "The Sustainability of Post-Conflict Development: The Case of Algeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meissner, Hannes, 2010. "The Resource Curse and Rentier States in the Caspian Region: A Need for Context Analysis," GIGA Working Papers 133, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Shabafrouz, Miriam, 2010. "Oil and the Eruption of the Algerian Civil War: A Context-sensitive Analysis of the Ambivalent Impact of Resource Abundance," GIGA Working Papers 118, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Armando Barrientos & Daniel Neff, 2011. "Attitudes to Chronic Poverty in the ‘Global Village’," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 101-114, January.
    4. Chekouri, Sidi Mohamed & Benbouziane, Mohamed & Chibi, Abderrahim, 2017. "Oil rents and institutional quality: empirical evidence from Algeria," MPRA Paper 81862, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Sep 2017.
    5. Basedau, Matthias & Mähler, Annegret & Shabafrouz, Miriam, 2011. "Revisiting the Resource–Conflict Link: A Systematic Comparative Test of Causal Mechanisms in Four Major Oil-Exporting Countries," GIGA Working Papers 175, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    6. Kjetil Bjorvatn & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2014. "Resource Rents, Power, and Political Stability," CESifo Working Paper Series 4727, CESifo.
    7. Machado E Silva, Isabela Morbach & Medeiros Costa, Hirdan Katarina de, 2019. "Brazilian Social Funds: The lessons learned from the Norway fund experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 161-167.
    8. Phoebe W. Ishak & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2022. "Oil price shocks, protest, and the shadow economy: Is there a mitigation effect?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 298-321, July.
    9. Mohaddes, M. & Nugent, J. & Selim, H., 2018. "Reforming Fiscal Institutions in Resource-Rich Arab Economies: Policy Proposals," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1848, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Bank, André & Richter, Thomas & Sunik, Anna, 2013. "Long-Term Monarchical Survival in the Middle East: A Configurational Comparison, 1945-2012," GIGA Working Papers 215, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    11. Michael C. Marshall, 2019. "Foreign Rebel Sponsorship: A Patron–Client Analysis of Party Viability in Elections Following Negotiated Settlements," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(2), pages 555-584, February.
    12. Alexeev, Michael & Zakharov, Nikita, 2022. "Who profits from windfalls in oil tax revenue? Inequality, protests, and the role of corruption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 472-492.
    13. Yang, Jinxuan & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Tan, Zhixiong & Umar, Muhammad & Koondhar, Mansoor Ahmed, 2021. "The competing role of natural gas and oil as fossil fuel and the non-linear dynamics of resource curse in Russia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Fenja Søndergaard Møller, 2019. "Blue blood or true blood: Why are levels of intrastate armed conflict so low in Middle Eastern monarchies?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(5), pages 517-544, September.
    15. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Oil Wealth, Ethno‐Religious‐Linguistic Fractionalization and Civil Wars in Africa: Cross‐Country Evidence," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 209-236, June.
    16. Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Tadadjeu, Sosson & Nounamo, Yann & Kamguia, Brice, 2022. "Governance in mitigating the effect of oil wealth on wealth inequality: A cross-country analysis of policy thresholds," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Cockx, Lara & Francken, Nathalie, 2014. "Extending the concept of the resource curse: Natural resources and public spending on health," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 136-149.
    18. Cappelli, Federica & Carnazza, Giovanni & Vellucci, Pierluigi, 2023. "Crude oil, international trade and political stability: Do network relations matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    19. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Natural resources, child mortality and governance quality in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Alexeev, Michael & Zakharov, Nikita, 2022. "Who profits from windfalls in oil tax revenue? Inequality, protests, and the role of corruption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 472-492.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.