Conflict prevention work by definition requires people to live in conflict areas. Discussant In addition to those mentioned today, there are several other economic factors that should be scrutinized by the Agency. First, microeconomic variables play important roles in the run up to conflict. Second, the Agency should be very sensitive to the ability of a country's leadership to manipulate ethnicity to its own advantage, politically and economically. Third, institutions matter.
Rebel groups provide effective goods and services in countries, as in Somalia.
They run the institutions that matter most to the local populace. Local economies should not be controlled by a few powerful elites. They don't just provide weapons but money for constructive institutions like schools. Diaspora organizations already have connections in the countries in question, both business and social connections. And many of the states in question and in conflict never have been successful states.