... that through their participation in the Liberia National Transitional Government warlords could gain access to state resources whilst continuing hostilies between each other? Source: "The agreement owed its significance to the fact that it established the principle of giving the main contenders a direct stake in the national government, and thus access to "state" resources while hostilities continued." (Gerdes, p. 44) ""In essence, the situation was one in which the warring parties jointly enjoured the material prerogatives of sovereign statehood, while able to simultaneously exploit the terrorities they controlled as non-sovereign armed entities. Yet violent competition between the parties persisted" (Gerdes, p. 52)