Phil and Sulemana’s article, published in Politics & Policy and titled “Moving in Cycles: Explaining the Failure of Militarization to Address Illegal Mining in Ghana,” explores the ongoing failure of successive Ghanaian governments’ use of state security apparatus to combat illegal mining (galamsey). They approach the issue through a “network-based political economy” perspective, integrating institutional and political economy analyses.
They argued that galamsey persists in Ghana because the military strategy targets only on-site miners, arresting and prosecuting them, as they are the most replaceable part of the galamsey network. This approach neglects or shields three key nodes—political elites and financiers, regulatory authorities, and local chiefs—from accountability. As a result, when on-site miners are detained, these groups can easily rebuild the network, maintaining galamsey for their own advantage. Each plays a critical role with the political elites offer protection to culprits, financiers provide the resources, regulatory officials issue permits to undeserving people or look on as galamsey goes on, while chiefs lease lands indiscriminately.
They call for the implementation of coordinated, system-wide interventions capable of dismantling these networks rather than relying on coercive, site-level enforcement. These findings bear both theoretical and empirical implications for other developing nations, particularly in Africa and Latin America, which are grappling with illegal mining activities in extractive regions.
The Open Access article is available here.
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