Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

320 john brayTable 7.6 How Often Do International CompaniesUse Tied Aid to Gain Business Advantage?(percent)Companies’home Nearly Don’tgovernment Never Occasionally Regularly always knowUnited States 12.4 48.0 22.8 2.8 14.0Other OECDcountries 8.0 58.4 22.8 1.2 9.6Source: Control Risks Group (2002).“regularly” (table 7.6; Control Risks Group 2002, p. 58). Again, thelegitimacy of such strategies is open to question—however effectivethey may be.Improving governance is often an important component of bilateralaid programs. For example, in a recent speech to U.S. oil companies,U.S. Assistant Secretary Walter Kansteiner argues that the best way forthe U.S. government to assist them in West Africa is by taking measuresto curb corruption (Kansteiner 2002). Anticorruption initiativesare an increasingly important part not only of U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment programs but also of other bilateral programs,including those from Germany, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom,and multilateral programs of international financial institutions, includingthe World Bank.However, there are limits to the influence of any external agent unlessthere is a degree of local “buy-in.” As Robert Ebel, energy programdirector of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies, comments with regard to West Africa, “Political jawboning andstrong rhetoric can only go so far before some of the countries begin toresent the constant pressure to measure up to our standards” (cited inVieth 2003, p. A1).Finally, governments can also assist by helping to train hostgovernmentsecurity forces. Currently, the most obvious example isColombia, where U.S. armed forces are training Colombian troops toguard the Cano-Limón pipeline, which carries oil from fields developedby the U.S. company Occidental. U.S. assistance to the Colombianarmed forces, however, is controversial, both in the country and abroad.Multilateral agencies such as the World Bank or United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) face fewer political sensitivities thanindividual governments but nonetheless run the risk of unwarrantedinterference in the affairs of host governments. The InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and UNDP all emphasize the