Foreign Investment in a Post-Conflict Environment

Foreign direct investment can play an important role in promoting economic growth in post-conflict states. In order to attract the benefits of foreign investment, a host country must ensure foreign investors that they can safely invest there. In post-conflict economies, the physical safety concerns, combined with a general distrust of post-conflict governments, are among the key considerations for foreign investors. However, foreign investors also recognize that new and untapped opportunities become available in a post-conflict context. This article first seeks to identify certain issues relating to foreign investment that, from the perspective of the international lawyer, both post-conflict governments and potential investors in those countries should consider. The second part of this article illustrates some of these issues in practice by considering the specific case study of Iraq