First discovered in 1930, the diamonds of Sierra Leone have funded one of the most savage rebel campaigns in modern history. These "blood diamonds" are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp, and New York, often with the complicity of the international diamond industry. Eventually, these very diamonds find their way into the rings and necklaces of brides and spouses the world over. Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry - institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel - have allowed it to happen. Award-winning journalist Greg Campbell traces the deadly trail of these diamonds, many of which are brought to the world market by fanatical enemies. These repercussions of diamond smuggling are felt far beyond the borders of the poor and war-ridden country of Sierra Leone, and the consequences of overlooking this African tragedy are both shockingly deadly and unquestionably global. Updated with a new epilogue.

In the late 1990s, several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused world attention on the issue of conflict diamonds which funded wars, massive death, and refugee crises across Central and West Africa. Several governments, NGOs, and key industry players engaged in negotiations under the so-called Kimberley Process (KP). A voluntary global agreement came into effect leading to a substantial decline in illicit diamond trade. Despite its importance in international affairs, the KP remains understudied in academia. Franziska Bieri's book provides the first comprehensive account of the KP and is the first to reveal how NGOs have become critical actors in their own right, possessing the ability to directly influence policies and to participate in the decision making and the implementation of global agreements. In developing this argument, Bieri explains: why the NGO campaign to raise awareness was successful; why a rapid and comprehensive resolution on such a complex global problem was possible; how the tripartite negotiations between states, NGOs, and industry developed during the implementation of the agreement, which is an on-going process. Based on extensive personal interviews with prominent campaigners, leading bureaucrats, and industry officials, hundreds of KP publications, official UN documents, industry news, and NGO reports, this timely book allows for a much needed engagement in contemporary debates about the campaign against conflict diamonds, the Kimberley Process, and the themes defining today's global governance arena.

In 2017 it will be Australia’s turn to chair the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP), an international organisation set up to regulate the trade in diamonds. Diamonds are a symbol of love, purchased to celebrate marriage, and it is therefore deeply ironic that the diamond trade has become linked with warfare and human rights violations committed in African producer countries such as Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, more recently, Zimbabwe and Angola. In their quest for diamonds, or by using diamonds to purchase weapons, armed groups in these countries have engaged in recruiting child soldiers, amputating limbs, and committing rape and murder. In response to the problem, the international community, non-governmental organisations and key industry players such as De Beers combined forces to create the Kimberley Process in 2002. The KP uses an export certificate system to distinguish the legitimate rough diamond trade from so-called ‘blood diamonds’, which are also known as ‘conflict diamonds’. This book considers the extent to which the KP, supported by other agencies at the international and national levels, has been effective in achieving its mandate. In so doing, it presents an original model derived from the domain of regulatory theory, the Dual Networked Pyramid, as a means of describing the operation of the system and suggesting possible improvements that might be made to it.

Africa’s diamond wars took four million lives. ‘Blood on the Stone’ tells the story of how diamonds came to be so dangerous, describing the great diamond cartel and a dangerous pipeline leading from war-torn Africa to the glittering showrooms of Paris, London and New York. It describes the campaign that forced an industry and more than 50 governments to create a global control mechanism, and it provides a sobering prognosis on its future.

The mining and sales of diamonds by parties to participants of armed conflicts, notably in Africa, are regarded as a significant factor fuelling such hostilities. These diamonds, labelled 'conflict diamonds', make up an estimated 3.7 per cent to 15 per cent of the value of the global diamond trade. In response to public pressure to halt the trade of conflict diamonds and due to the persistence of diamond-related conflicts, governments and multi-lateral organisations have taken diplomatic action to combat the trade. Several international policy making forums, including the UN, have addressed the problem, and the international diamond industry and non-governmental organisations have proposed a range of reforms and legislative initiatives to halt the illicit trade. This new book examines the diamond-related African conflicts, the various methods that are being researched and used to 'tag' diamonds with microscopic markings, and the efforts taken to regulate the marketing and exporting of diamonds.

"Diamonds in Peace and War" is the latest word on conflictdiamonds and their contribution to the wars of middle Africa. The report grew out of a conference sponsored by the World Peace Foundation, the Project on Justice, the Carr Center, and the WPF Program on Intrastate Conflict at the Kennedy School of Government in late 2001. Although theconflict diamond problem is but a small part of the much larger world-wide trade in peaceful diamonds, it is the destructive and corrosive part. Tamm places conflict diamonds within this larger context, lays out the technical issues involved, and explores all aspects of the Kimberly Process ? theunparalleled negotiating effort by industry, NGOs, and national governments that produced a standard method of differentiating clean from dirty diamonds. It also helped to produce pending U.S. legislation. Using diamonds to import arms and sponsor war is less likely now that theKimberly Process has produced a near-final agreement. "Diamonds in Peace and War" is the place to learn all about this remarkably successful initiative of conflict prevention and conflict reduction.

A novel about an Israeli and a Palestinian who try to prevent an African warlord's terrorist plot against the United States.