Conflict around borders surrounding the most precious resource (5)
I believe the answer is:
water
'surrounding the most precious resource' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'conflict around borders' is the wordplay.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'borders' becomes 'te' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'war' placed around 'te' is 'WATER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for water that I've seen before include "Quality of diamonds" , "something damp" , "One of the four classical elements" , "H20" , "Diamond quality" .)