Securing Resources by Force
The Need for Raw Materials & Military Intervention
by Major Powers in Less Developed Countries

By Mats Hammarstrom
July 1986
Uppsala University Press
ISBN: 91-506-0496-1
188 pages, Illustrated, 5 3/4" x 8"
$36.50 Paper Original

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In this doctoral dissertation, a systematic analysis is made of the wide-spread thesis that the need for raw materials has been related to military intervention by major powers in less developed countries in the post-World War II period. Since the main theoretical support for the thesis can be found in the theory of economic imperialism, it is analyzed from the perspective of this theory, which entails a focus on capitalist major powers and their imports of minerals deemed essential not only for military purposes but also for economic ends.

Those less developed countries that were involved in armed conflict during the period 195-1977 are examined with regard to their positions as suppliers to three major powers - France, the US, and the UK - of fifteen economically and militarily essential minerals. By employing various combinations of two samples of minerals, two ways of measuring a less developed country's importance as a supplier, and two lists of armed conflicts, the thesis is subjected to several tests.

Politics
Uppsala University Department of Peace & Conflict Research, Report No. 27

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