On forgetful goldfish and failed mnemonics: transforming political economies of conflict using voluntarism, regulation, and supervision

This article examines three types of initiatives that have been deployed in the effort to transform the political economies of civil conflict: voluntary ethical trading initiatives. formal regulation to promote ethical trading or good resource governance, and economic supervision schemes. The article draws on brief case studies of the United Nations Global Compact, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as well as discussing economic supervision schemes such as those imposed on Chad and Liberia. The article argues that the current representation of these initiatives obscures that they represent a retreat from the more ambitious programs of reform articulated in the 1970s.