15 June: SIPRI Yearbook launch seminar: Natural resources and conflict—the MENA region a hot spot
On the occasion of the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2011, SIPRI invites you to a seminar on Natural resources and conflict.
Issues surrounding the exploitation of and access to natural resources have emerged as key concerns for governments and societies around the world. The implications of resource questions for stability and security were highlighted once again in 2010 and early 2011 as prices for energy, minerals, timber and other commodities fluctuated strongly. High food prices were linked to rioting and the overthrow of governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Will resource questions dictate the future pattern of conflict? And what role do the so-called BRICs and other emerging powers play? What other factors influence conflict risk in a region such as MENA?
Programme
| Session I |
New powers, new conflicts |
|---|---|
| Chair | Dr Bates Gill, Director, SIPRI |
| 14.00 |
The changing global political order and implications for resource conflict Dr Neil Melvin, Director, Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Programme |
| 14.10 | Financing military spending with revenues from natural resources - insights from Africa
Dr Olawale Ismail, Researcher of the Military Expenditure Project |
| 14.20 |
Resource conflicts in the DRC Ruben de Koning, Associated Researcher, Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Programme |
| 14.45 | Coffee break |
| Session II | Middle East and North Africa—some issues of concern in a world hot spot |
|---|---|
| Chair | Daniel Nord, Deputy Director, SIPRI |
| 15.10 |
The nuclear non-proliferation challenge in the MENA region Daniel Nord, Deputy Director, SIPRI |
| 15.20 |
Arms transfers and the conflict in Libya
Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher, Arms Transfers Programme |
| 15.30 | Challenges in establishing a sanctions regime: the case of Iran Edin Omanovic, Researcher, Countering Illicit Trafficking–Mechanism Assessment Projects |
| 15.40 | Turkey’s arms industry—a strong regional player
Dr Susan Jackson, Head of the Arms Production Project |
| 15.50 | General discussion |
| 16.15 | End of seminar |
Please confirm your participation, giving your name and full affiliation, no later than Monday, 13 June 2011 to Stephanie Blenckner, SIPRI Communications Director, Phone: 08-655 97 47, Email: blenckner@sipri.org.
