The global checkpoint economy: Supply chains as a new frontline in conflict financing?

A new DIIS study presents an overview of the role of transit taxes levied at checkpoints in financing ongoing conflicts around the world. Compiling evidence from six different contexts, this DIIS Working Paper finds that in each of the conflicts, checkpoints form a key source of revenue for parties to the conflict. Whether in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria, the Central African Republic or Iraq, taxing passage is a consistent feature of how conflict actors sustain themselves.