Aargh, Matey, Where Are Your Loyalties?

We should not be surprised that the Somali pirates take both sides (or don't take sides at all).  The folks involved in trafficking drugs, cigarettes, guns, women, etc. tend not to be terribly ideological, but capitalists in the purest form.  A dollar is a dollar is a dollar.  So, we should not be surprised by such stories.  This development should also remind us of two things about the funding of conflict:

• there are many ways to fund a civil war/insurgent organization, not just diamonds and lootable resources;
• that the presence of such resources probably do not cause conflicts but perhaps make them harder to end.

Off to my first APSA appointment--my first PhD student who is now a prof.