Shipping Policy to Fight the Resource Curse

Transnational trade rules endow authoritarians and armed groups with unaccountable power in states rich with natural resources. This structural flaw in international trade generates the ‘resource curse’ phenomena that have driven many of the world's most serious crises since the 1970s. Attempts to curtail this unaccountable power from outside resource‐rich states have not been successful, and crises caused by this structural flaw continue to plague the global community. The shipping sector provides a promising location for reforms to fight the resource curse, as it is a sector where extensive, unified and enforceable regulations have long been established. With peaceful unilateral and multilateral action, states can restructure the shipping industry so that it respects the property rights of all peoples in their natural resources. These policies will reduce the conflict and extremism that today emanates from resource‐rich states, stabilizing the international system and clearing space on its agenda for addressing other urgent global challenges.