Offering up-to-date and comprehensive analysis, this title combines empirically-based and analytic chapters. It explains the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace.

Includes maps of: Niger Delta States; Region around the Soku Gas Plant.

Pt. 1. Causes of conflict, state (in)capacities. The Nigerian state, oil and the Niger Delta crisis / Ukoha Ukiwo -- Capacity and governance deficits in the response to the Niger Delta crisis / Babatunde A. Ahonsi -- The struggle for resource control and violence in the Niger Delta / Rhuks Ako -- The Niger Delta crisis and the question of access to justice / Engobo Emeseh -- The Ijaw National Congress and conflict resolution in the Niger Delta / Ibaba Samuel Ibaba -- Changing the paradigm of pacification : oil and militarization in Nigeria's Delta region / Charles Ukeje -- Nigeria's oil diplomacy and the management of the Niger Delta crisis / Kayode Soremekun -- pt. 2. Conflict actors' dynamics. 'Mend me' : the movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta and the empowerment of violence / Morten Bøås -- Popular and criminal violence as instruments of struggle in the Niger Delta region / Augustine Ikelegbe -- Swamped with weapons : the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in the Niger Delta / Nils Duquet -- Women's protests in the Niger Delta region / Oluwatoyin Oluwaniyi -- pt. 3. Oil MNCs' response(s). Corporate social responsibility and the Niger Delta conflict : issues and prospects / Uwafiokun Idemudia -- Labelling oil, contesting governance : Legaloil.com, the GMoU and profiteering in the Niger Delta / Anna Zalik -- Conclusion : amnesty and post-amnesty peace, is the window of opportunity closing for the Niger Delta? / Cyril Obi and Siri Aas Rustad.