No Blood for Lithium…?

As I consider the karmic implications of engaging in a war for oil in Iraq while later confronting the BP disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico, this week’s news on a possible one trillion dollar treasure hoard of resources in Afghanistan brings my internal idealist and realist head to head. While No War for Lithium lacks a certain cache (although the alternative No Blood for Lithium may work), various commentaries question both the timing of the announcement as well as the implications for Afghanistan’s development. I especially liked Amity Shlaes article on Bloomberg and Blake Hounshell’s blog post on Foreign Policy on the issue.

While the resources are a potential boon to Afghanistan, I can hear extraction companies salivating over the potential profits. The articles listed above explain the resource course and reasons why Afghanistan may not benefit, and indeed may stand to lose over the discovery. The prospect of “conflict lithium” much like blood diamonds may mark our digital era with various armed groups in Afghanistan open to new sources of income. While many US based articles seem to think that all of these potential profits (based on guesses…) will flow to American companies with their biggest concern being competition from China, the benefits for the average citizen of Afghanistan seemed to be left out of the debate. While I am sure the corporate social responsibility wing of any of the extraction companies will build the feel good requisite schools (along with sizable infrastructure investments to and from mining sites…and hey roads are a good thing), the lack of strong accountability structures in Afghanistan along with rule of law mean the potential capital investments will be offset by environmental degradation (if extraction companies do not have their act together in the US, how will they act in countries with even less oversight?). Further looking at how other extractive industries have acted with impunity (such as in the conflict of the Nigerian delta), the average citizen looks to see new forces scrabbling over their land with themselves caught in between.

What does the discovery mean for the US commitment? The sense, much like in Iraq, is that resources can be extracted by American countries offsetting the cost of the war and the cost of reconstruction. However, again, where will profits go? Not to Afghanistan’s people, but to whomever we outsource to in order to protect whichever extractive industry is in operation. Or if further security (aren’t we supposed to withdraw..eventually?) is not provided by unaccountable contractors, I can’t help to think of our history in Central America, but instead of running down to Guatemala to protect the Dole company’s bananas we will be forced to protect the investments of extractive corporations.

While Afghanistan lacks the capacity to develop the resources themselves, they also lack the capacity to oversee the development of resources given official corruption. How can the US and Afghanistan “do right” by the citizens there? Furthermore, how has this news reinforced perceptions about America’s role in the region? The potential for job creation for ordinary people remains a hope, but the current track record of fragile nations finding resources is rather poor. Considering that peace and stability have yet to be achieved, we can dream in the interim that Afghanistan’s people can have a choice in how their resources are used along with how to develop their country.