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Rooted in violence: civil war, international trade and the expansion of palm oil in Colombia

Maher, DJ

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Abstract

Internal armed conflict severely inhibits economic growth according to a prominent set of civil war literature. Similarly, emerging scholarship finds that civil war inhibits processes of economic globalisation which are argued to produce economic growth. A case in point is international trade, which is reportedly stymied by intra-state war. In contrast, this article employs a critical theoretical framework which acknowledges the often violent tendencies of globalised capitalism. By analysing Colombia’s palm oil industry, this article argues that civil war violence can facilitate international trade. In the case study which is presented, violence perpetrated by Colombia’s public armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries has enabled the palm oil sector to enter and compete in the globalised economy. This includes processes of forced displacement, which have acquired land for palm oil cultivation, and violence directed at civil groups deemed inimical to the interests of the palm oil sector. By employing a micro-level approach, this article attempts to isolate violent trends related to palm oil cultivation in Meta, the largest African palm growing region in Colombia. An attempt is therefore made to give an empirically informed account of how violence in Colombia’s civil war is facilitating palm oil exports.

Citation

Maher, D. (2015). Rooted in violence: civil war, international trade and the expansion of palm oil in Colombia. New Political Economy, 20(2), 299-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2014.923825

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Jul 15, 2014
Publication Date Jan 1, 2015
Deposit Date Aug 15, 2014
Publicly Available Date Apr 5, 2016
Journal New Political Economy
Print ISSN 1356-3467
Electronic ISSN 1469-9923
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 2
Pages 299-330
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2014.923825
Keywords civil war, Colombia, disaggregation, economic development, international trade, palm oil, political economy of conflict
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2014.923825
Related Public URLs http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cnpe20/current

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