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The Anatomy of the Resource Curse: Predatory Investment in Africa's Extractive Industries


While the natural resource curse is typically considered an economic phenomenon, unregulated access to billions of dollars in natural resource revenues has profound effects on governance and the politicization of the security sector. Given the opaque nature of many of the transactions involved, however, relatively little is known about how these relationships work in practice.

 

In this latest Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) Special Report, "The Anatomy of the Resource Curse: Predatory Investment in Africa's Extractive Industries," J.R. Mailey delves into the often murky linkages between senior government officials, unscrupulous natural resource investors, and the loopholes they exploit in the international financial system. 

 

By tracing the actions of the Hong Kong-based Queensway Group, a major actor in Africa's extractive sector, through case studies on Angola, Guinea, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, the report provides a detailed portrait of the mechanics that perpetuate the inequitable development, weak institutions, and instability so frequently observed in Africa's 20+ resource-rich countries. (Click here to access the report.)


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