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Borderlands and the transformation of war economies: lessons from the DR Congo

Border towns bring out the worst in a country… 1 Borderlands are key arenas within which distinct conflicts within neighbouring states become entangled within ‘regional conflict formations’. Drawing on fieldwork in the kivu Provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this article draws a number of lessons concerning the nature of borderlands and policies to engage with them. Despite their apparent arbitrariness, many African borderlands have considerable longevity and carry complex histories. They play a particularly central role in economic life, and particularly in war economies. They are also prone to ‘edge effects’ – discontinuities between contrasting control regimes implemented at national level in neighbouring states. Finally, as places where ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ intertwine, they are critical to success in peacekeeping, peacemaking, peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Unfortunately, embedded institutional/legal and collective mental frameworks at the international level help to explain why borderlands remain under-prioritised. International approaches to addressing conflict require a Copernican shift, placing these apparently marginal areas at the centre of attention.