In several of the world’s armed conflicts, natural resources are an important source of income for the warring parties. Cutting this stream of revenues has therefore also become an objective of conflict prevention and –management policies of the European Union (EU). However, in contrast to its usual more multilateral leanings the EU is using in this issue field predominantly unilateral measures. The article therefore seeks to explain this policy choice.
By borrowing the Global Production Network (GPN)-conceptualisation from the field of the Economic Geography, the article illustrates how the global context in which the EU acts is becoming increasingly adverse for global measures. Many state actors are hesitant to commit themselves to binding, automatic measures regarding the trade in natural resources. Likewise, European companies, NGOs and consumers are losing leverage on the GPNs of many products that potentially use conflict-financing commodities. This situation decreases the EU’s indirect “market power”.
As a result of these developments, the only left policy option for the EU to curb the trade in these conflict resources is imposing unilateral measures. This situation, however, creates certain tensions with its self-image as promoter of “effective multilateralism” in the world
