ABSTRACT
Scholars and practitioners have increasingly pointed to linkages between armed conflict and various types of illicit business in many regions of the world, including the Caucasus, south-west Asia, the Middle East, western Africa, the Balkans and the Andes. This can involve illicit exports (such as drugs, timber, diamonds) to fund combatants, reselling looted goods on the black-market, smuggling weapons and other supplies, sanctions evasion and embargo busting, theft and diversion of humanitarian aid, and covert ‘trading with the enemy’.1 Moreover, these illicit economic activities can leave a lasting legacy for the post-conflict reconstruction process.2
