Business and Security in Fragile States

Interdisciplinary Programmes

Business and Security in Fragile States

MINT030 - Spring - 6 ECTS

Fri, 1 Mar 16.15-18.00 Fri, 8 Mar 16.15-18.00 Fri, 15 Mar 16.15- 20.00 Fri, 22 Mar 16.15-20.00 Fri, 29 Mar 16.15-18.00 Fri, 5 Apr 16.15-18.00 Sat, 6 Apr 9.15-17.00

Course Description

The course studies debates on and approaches to business and conflict in conflict-affected and fragile environments. It proposes a nuanced and at the same time practical understanding of the multiple roles of business in fragile states, and invites students to critically assess current policy frameworks and business responses to investment-related risk and conflict. The course also inquires what innovation is necessary to better equip businesses, international organizations, governments and local communities for the challenge of risk management and conflict prevention in large-scale investment contexts.

This six-credit course draws on contributions from various disciplines and cuts across institutions and sectors.

PROFESSOR

Achim Wennmann

achim.Wennmann@graduateinstitute.ch

Office hours: By appointment

ASSISTANT

Geoffroy Legentilhomme

geoffroy.legentilhomme@graduateinsti tute.ch

Office hours

Syllabus

The role of business in fragile states is frequently discussed in terms of two perspectives: the first focuses on the negative consequences of business in conflict zones including for instance commercial complicity with state and non-state armed actors, sanctions busting, or pure profit motives and greed.

The other perspective captures the indispensable role of business for development, as evidenced for many in the economic growth of several emerging economies. Debates on the first perspective resulted in a “controlling agenda” with the objective to control the behaviour of companies in conflict zones through several legal instruments and public pressure such as “naming and shaming”. Debate on the second perspective resulted in an “enabling agenda” as reflected in liberal perspectives, public-private partnerships, or the business and peace discussion. Over the last two decades, expert

opinion moved various times from one debate to another with the resulting creation of different expert constituencies.

A more balanced understanding of the role of business in fragile states will become more important as many actors want to find better ways to harness the power of the private sector for development in fragile states. In the framework of the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda, for instance, there will be a continued focus on the question of how fragile states themselves can most effectively achieve more prosperous and peaceful societies, and a key item on the agenda will be the role business will play in contributing to these goals. In this context, several questions may need answers: What are the issues to consider for understanding the role of business in fragile states? What partnership models are necessary to unlock the development potential of business investment? And what frameworks can help mitigate for business’ negative impacts and enable positive roles? What practice innovations in the fields of conflict prevention, peace mediation, or risk mitigation can strengthen business and security in fragile states?

This course requires students to be open to interdisciplinary thinking and to perspectives from different professions. Based on the discussion of key readings, the course provides an introduction to current debates on business and security in fragile environments and invites students to develop a nuanced and at the same time practical understanding of the key issues involved. The course will employ several interactive teaching methods.

The course will be graded through a research paper (80%) and class participation (20%).

The research paper should focus on a subject situated broadly within the field of business and security in fragile states. The process towards the final research paper will include the following four steps and deadlines:

• Step 1: Proposition of a paper topic, including (a) a research question; and a description of (b) why finding an answer to this question is important, (c) what scholarly literature this question is in conversation with, and (d) the approach and method used to answer the research question. Length: 300 words; deadline 15 March 2019 at the beginning of class (please print your submission and bring it to class).

• Step 2: Annotated bibliography: Identification of the 15-20 key publications relevant to answer the research question and a description of 50-100 words per publication how it contributes to answer the research question. Length: 1,500-2,000 words including a provisional abstract (ie the revised version of step 1). Deadline 29 March 2019 at the beginning of class (please print your submission and bring it to class).

• Step 3: Paper structure, including a (a) revised executive summary (200 words); (b) draft introduction (500 words), (c) draft paper outline composed of 3 section headlines and 6-8 topic sentences per section, and (d) draft conclusion. Length: 8 pages (no references or bibliography needed at this stage). Deadline 5 April 2019 at the beginning of class (please print your submission and bring it to class).

• Step 4: Final research paper fully referenced. Length 6,000 words (all in); deadline 10 May 2019. Please print your submission and submit it to the Teaching Assistant and send one electronic version to the Teaching Assistant. Final submissions will be screened with plagiarism detection software.

Class participation: Presence in class, participation in group work, production on deadline of paper research process.

This class is not open to auditors due to the interactive nature of the course.

Readings

All readings marked with a star (*) will be made available in the Institute’s online system. All other readings are available online or through the library’s electronic system or the internet. The course also draws on Brian Ganson and Achim Wennmann (2016) Business and Conflict in Fragile States: The Case for Pragmatic Solutions. London: Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (accessible via https://www.tandfonline.com).

Part 1: Overview on debates

Friday, 1 March, 16.15-18.00

• *John G. Ruggie (2013) Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights. New York: W.W. Norton and Company (Read: Introduction: Why business and human rights?

pp.xv-l).

• Siri Aas Rustad, Päivi Lujala, and Philippe Le Billon (2012) ‘Buidling or Spoiling Peace?

Lessons from the Management of High-value Natural Resources’, in Päivi Lujala and Siri Aas Rustad (eds.) High-Value Natural Resources and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. London:

Earthscan from Routledge, 571-621.

• Ben Miller, Brian Ganson, Sarah Cechvala, and Jason Miklian (2019) A Seat at the Table:

Capacities and Limitations of Private Sector Peacebuilding (Cambridge, MA: CDA Collaborative Learning Projects).

• *Christopher May and Andreas Nölke (2018) ‘The Delusion of the Global Corporation:

Introduction to the Handbook’. In Andreas Nölke und Christopher May (eds) Handbook of the International Political Economy of the Corporation (Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar), 295-310.

Part 2: What is a corporation?

Friday, 8 March, 16.15-18.00

• Alfred D. Chandler (1992) ‘Organizational Capabilities and the Economic History of the Industrial Enterprise’. Journal of Economy Perspectives 6(3), pp.79-100.

• *John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (2003) The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. London: Pheonix. (Read ‘Introduction: Utopia Limited’, pp.1-11; ‘Chapter 4: The Rise of Big Business in America’, 1862-1913, pp.61-82).

• *Marilise Smurthwait (2008) ‘The Purpose of the Corporation’. In in Oliver F. Williams (ed) Peace Through Commerce: Responsible Corporate Citizenship and the Ideals of the United Nations Global Compact. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, pp.119-132.

• Congo Research Group and Pulizer Centre on Crisis Reporting (2017) All the President’s Wealth: The Kabila Family Business. New York: Centre on International Cooperation, New York University. (Read ‘Executive Summary’, pp.1-4).

Part 3: Understanding business in fragile states

Friday, 15 March, 16.15- 20.00

• *Luc Zandfliet (2005) ‘Assessing Company Behaviour in Conflict Environments: A Field Perspective’. In Karen Ballentine and Heiko Nitschke (eds) Profiting from Peace: The Natural Resource Dimension of Civil War’. Boulder: Lynner Rienner, pp. 185-208.

• Daniel M. Franksa, Rachel Davis, Anthony J. Bebbingtond, Saleem H. Alia, Deanna Kempa, and Martin Scurrah (2014) ‘Conflict translates Environmental and Social Risk into Business Costs’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 111, No. 21, 7576–7581.

• Brian Ganson (2014) Business in Fragile Environments: Capabilities for Conflict Prevention.

Negotiation & Conflict Management Research Journal Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 121-139.

Select and read at least 2 topics.

• Community engagement: Lisa J. Laplante and Suzanna A. Spears (2008), ‘Out of the Conflict Zone: The Case for Community Consent Processes in the Extractive Sector’, in Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, Vol. 1, pp.69-116 (Read pp. 69-97).

• Doing business in times of war: Aron Lund (2018) The Factory: A Glimpse into Syria's War Economy (21 February) https://tcf.org/content/report/factory-glimpse-syrias-war-economy.

• Private investment and frontier urbanization: Oliver Jütersonke and Hanna Dönges (2015)

‘Digging for Trouble: Violence and Frontier Urbanization’. In Small Arms Survey (ed.) Small Arms Survey 2015: Weapons and the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.37- 57.

• Natural resource trading: Alexander Malden and Joseph Williams (2018) Generating Government Revenue from the Sale of Oil and Gas. Washingtion DC: Natural Resource Governance Institute.

Part 4: The business of security

Friday, 22 March, 16.15-20.00

• P.W. Singer (2002) ‘Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry and Its Ramifications for International Security’. International Security, 26(3) 186-220.

• *David Keen (2012) Useful Enemies: When Waging Wars is more Important than Winning Them. New Haven: Yale University Press (Read Chapter 8: Case study of a permanent emergency: The United States, pp.171-194).

• Ben Hubbard (2017) At a ‘Defense’ Expo, an Antiseptic World of Weaponry, New York Times, 23 February.

• Andrew E. Kramer (2017) Russia Deploys a Potent Weapon in Syria: The Profit Motive, New York Times, 5 July.

Select and read at least 2 topics.

• Military Expenditure: Nan Tian, Dr Aude Fleurant, Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T.

Wezeman (2018) Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2017. Stockholm: SIPRI.

• Arms Companies:

o Aude Fleurant, Alexandra Kuimova, Nan Tian, Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T.

Wezeman (2018) The SIPRI Top 100 Arms-producing and Military Services Companies, 2017. Stockholm: SIPRI.

o Lucie Béraud-Sudreau (2018) Global Defence-industry League: Where is China?

Military Balance Blog, 28 August. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies.

• Arms and the political marketplace: *Alex de Waal (2015) The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa. Cambridge. Polity Press (Read ‘Chapter 11: Transnational patronage and dollarization’, pp.174-195).

• Military in business: Kristina Mani (2007) ‘Militaries in Business: State-making and Entrepreneurship in the Developing World’, in Armed Forces & Society 33(4), 591-611.

Part 5: Organized crime as business

Friday, 29 March, 16.15-18.00

• *H. Richard Friman (2009) ‘Crime and Globalization’, in H. Richard Friman (ed.) Crime and the Global Political Economy. Boulder: Lyne Rinner, pp.1-21.

• James Cockayne (2013) Chasing shadows: Strategic responses to organized crime in conflict- affected situations. The RUSI Journal 158(2), 10–24.

• Moisés Naím (2012) Mafia States: Organized Crime Takes Office, Foreign Affairs 91(3), pp.100-111.

• Livia Wagner (2016) Organized Crime and Illegally Mined Gold in Latin America. Geneva:

Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (Read: ‘Executive summary’, pp.vi-x).

Part 6: Cases

Select and read at least three case studies.

Management in complex environments

• How do we put all the pieces together? Tetra Laval Food for Development Office; in Brian Ganson (ed.) Management in Complex Environments: Questions for Leaders. Stockholm:

International Council of Swedish Industry, pp.158-165.

• Hendrik Kotze (2014) Farmworker Grievances in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Hague:

ACCESS Case Story Series No.3.

Community engagement

• Lisa J. Laplante and Suzanna A. Spears, ‘Out of the Conflict Zone: The Case for Community Consent Processes in the Extractive Sector’, in Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, Vol. 1, 2008, pp.69-116 (Read Peru case study, pp. 98-114).

• Pablo Lumerman and Duncan Autrey (2013) Chichigalpa Association for Life and Nicaragua Sugar Estates Ltd. The Hague: ACCESS Case Story Series No.1.

Peace processes

• Guy Ben-Porat (2005), ‘Between Power and Hegemony: Business Communities in Peace Processes’, Review of International Studies 31(2) 325–348.

• Craig Charney (1999) ‘Civil Society, Political Violence, and Democratic Transitions: Business and the Peace Process in South Africa, 1990–1994’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 41(1) 182–206.

Violence reduction

• Eduardo Moncada (2013) Business and the Politics of Urban Violence in Colombia’, Studies in Comparative International Development 48(3) 308–330.

• Jonathan Austin and Achim Wennmann (2017) Business Engagement in Violence Prevention and Peacebuilding: The Case of Kenya, Conflict, Security and Development 17 (6) 451-572

Practical exercises

Saturday, 6 April, 9.15-17.00