Cilliers, Jakkie and Christian Dietrich, eds. 2000. Angola's War Economy: The Role of Oil and Diamonds. Institute for Security Studies: Pretoria.

This is an edited volume that is an in-depth analysis of the oil and diamond trade in Angola. This annotation just provides the article titles and a brief topical summary, so individual articles can be referenced as needed.

Cilliers, Jakkie. "Resource wars -- a new type of insurgency" Introduces the volume and articulates Collier's thesis about Resource Wars (put simply, the best indication of a country's propensity for civil conflict is the size and proportion of the economy that is based on the export of primary resources, like oil, diamonds, and the like.)

Le Billion, Philippe. "The political economy of resource wars" Just like what it sounds like. A further exploration of this type of conflict, where control of a particular area and its minerals is more important than popular support.

Cornwell, Richard. "The war for independence" A great introduction to the modern history of Angola for people who, like me, haven't the foggiest notion why UNITA and the MPLA don't get along.

de Beer, Hannalie and Virginia Gamba. "The arms dilemma: resources for arms or arms for resources?" This article explores the relationship between resource control and combat power, and how that structure shifted with the end of the Cold War and the withdrawal of external politically motivated military aid impacted the conflict.

Malaquias, Assis. "Ethnicity and conflict in Angola: prospects for reconciliation" So in addition to (or perhaps, superceding) their political differences the MPLA and UNITA are also split along ethnic lines (and, within the movements, along clan / sub-tribal lines). While in colonial times, ethnic differences were used to maintain control, the end of the colonial era did not signal an end to ethnic competition for state patronage networks. The author argues for a post-colonial state that embraces ethnic identity but allows citizens to fully effective as both citizens and ethnic group members.

Ostheimer, Andrea E. "Aid agencies: providers of essential resources?" A short article that is an illustration of Fiona Terry's point in Condemned to Repeat. Not the same sort of problem as elsewhere, because aid is not a necessary or sufficient condition to continue the conflict, even if it is coopted a bit and contributes.


Dietrich, Christian. "Inventory of formal diamond mining in Angola" Everything you ever wanted to know about diamond concessions and corporations in Angola, but were afraid to ask.

Dietrich, Christian. "Power struggles in the diamond fields." This article addresses the Angolan informal diamond mining industry, the relationship between mining and military capacity, and the attempts by the central government to gain control of the industry from the generals in the area.

Clarke, Duncan. "Petroleum prospects and political power." Everything you ever wanted to know about offshore oil in Angola but were afraid to ask PLUS an explanation of how oil is more amenable to exploitation by very narrow patronage networks (the oil is offshore, few indigenous workers are required, assets flow from MNCs to political elites directly).

Reno, William. "The real (war) economy of Angola." An short but interesting article in which Reno argues that the Angolan illicit economy is similar to 19th-century colonial structures, insofar as both employed a corporatized security element to secure economically vital areas while tolerating insecurity elsewhere in the country. To use De Waal's formulation, the elites are externally rather than internally focused.

Dietrich, H Richard. "Ethical considerations for multinationals in Angola." After arguing for the importance of corporate ethics, suggests guidelines for the oil, banking, and diamond sectors.

Potgieter, Jakkie. "'Taking aid from the devil himself' -- UNITA's support structures." A historical review of how UNITA developed and implemented a strategy of self-reliance that has enabled the organization to survive the loss of multiple patrons over the years, and suggestions of how the international community could disrupt UNITA's supply chain.

Dietrich, Christian. "UNITA's diamond mining and exporting capacity." A review of the specific fields UNITA controls and how they move diamonds onto the international market.

Peleman, Johan. "The logistics of sanctions busting: the airborne component." A very interesting article on how UNITA sustains itself through off-the-books flights into the combat zone. Of additional interest is how these flights are private commercial endeavors and are not organic to UNITA.

Dietrich, Christian. "Porous borders and diamonds." Explains how diamonds get from Angola to Zales and estimates the trade along all available routes. Includes case studies.

Cilliers, Jakkie. "Beyond the stalemate?" As the war had not ended by the time this book was published, this article takes a pessimistic view and offers some suggestions. Might be interesting to compare Cillier's predictions with an actual history of the peace agreement as it occurred.