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302. Another Inconvenient Truth: How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The current biofuel policies of rich countries are neither a solution to the climate crisis nor the oil crisis, and instead are contributing to a third: the food crisis. In poor countries, biofuels may offer some genuine development opportunities, but the potential economic, social, and environmental costs are severe, and decision makers should proceed with caution.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Oil
303. The Geopolitics of Energy: From Security to Survival
- Author:
- Carlos Pascual
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Since the industrial revolution the geopolitics of energy – who supplies it, and securing reliable access to those supplies – have been a driving factor in global prosperity and security. Over the coming decades, energy politics will determine the survival of the planet.
- Topic:
- Security, Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Oil
304. Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq
- Author:
- Harvey Sapolsky, Christopher Preble, and Benjamin Friedman
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Foreign policy experts and policy analysts are misreading the lessons of Iraq. The emerging conventional wisdom holds that success could have been achieved in Iraq with more troops, more cooperation among U.S. government agencies, and better counterinsurgency doctrine. To analysts who share these views, Iraq is not an example of what not to do but of how not to do it. Their policy proposals aim to reform the national security bureaucracy so that we will get it right the next time.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Oil
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, and Middle East
305. Resources and the Political Economy of State Fragility in Conflict States: Iraq and Somalia
- Author:
- Ghassan Dibeh
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper studies state failure and governance in two conflict-states in the Middle East: Iraq and Somalia. Iraq is currently undergoing a social experiment under which a new form of government is being constructed after the passage of autocratic rule. The government envisaged is a consociational democratic state designed a priori as a political mechanism for the redistribution of resources, mainly oil. Somalia represents a stateless society or anarchy. The paper argues that in resource-rich countries such as Iraq, the consociational project leads to an Olson-type rent-seeking confessional behaviour that hampers economic growth and development. The rent-seeking behaviour in Iraq is fuelling the insurgency that perceives the consociational system as a grabbing attempt of the country's resources by other ethnic groups. However, state construction is possible since there is a positive economic effect of combining government and resources. In Somalia, on the other hand, the developments and the evolution of anarchy since state collapse in 1991 exemplify the result of prolonged conflict in a resource-poor state. The lack of resources, direct access of producers to resources and low productivity and weak redistributional potential of combining resources and government offer no material incentives to the various groups for resurrecting central authority.
- Topic:
- Oil and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Iraq, Middle East, and Somalia
306. Energy Security: NATO's Limited, Complementary Role.
- Author:
- Andrew C. Monaghan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- NATO cannot avoid discussing energy security. As both the international situation and the alliance evolve, it becomes increasingly important and relevant to do so: clear and direct links exist between the security of NATO member states and the interruption of their energy supply. Indeed, given the range and potential scale of these threats it would be, as stated by the alliance's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, alarming if NATO did not at least discuss it. NATO could not simply 'stay on the sidelines' watching such threats emerge. Discussion of energy security can take place under the framework of the alliance's Washington Treaty, as outlined in Article IV. But the role proposed by the alliance is a limited one - and, as Jamie Shea has noted, discussions mean neither automatic agreement that NATO will act, nor that the alliance would necessarily adopt a leading role in any response.
- Topic:
- Security, NATO, Energy Policy, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- Washington
307. PolicyWatch #1384: Supplicants to Saudi Arabia: The Jeddah Energy Meeting
- Author:
- Simon Henderson
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- This weekend, Saudi Arabia will attempt to counter accusations that it has not done enough to stop rising oil prices by hosting an international energy summit of government and oil-company officials. Invitations were sent after the kingdom -- the world's top oil exporter, home to nearly a quarter of known reserves -- was pressured to take action on prices that have increased 40 percent so far this year. Unless Saudi pricing policy changes, however, the meeting is unlikely to bring any relief to consumers.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy and Oil
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Saudi Arabia
308. Bringing Peace to the Niger Delta
- Author:
- Kelly Campbell
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- The conflict in the Niger Delta has posed a fundamental domestic challenge to Nigerian security for more than a decade. Despite pledges to address continued instability in the Delta, the administration of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has not yet initiated a process to resolve the political, economic and security problems in the region. Oil production continues to diminish as a result of militant attacks, and is currently 20 to 25 percent below capacity. Meanwhile, militia members in the Niger Delta continue to engage in criminal activities such as kidnapping and oil bunkering1 to maximize profits for themselves and their political patrons.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
309. Regional energy security: An elusive objective?
- Author:
- Stuart Harris
- Publication Date:
- 08-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian National University Department of International Relations
- Abstract:
- Energy issues are a central feature of economic and political debate. The debate focuses not only on the growing regional energy demands from China and India, but also on the cyclical and structural factors in the international energy market that are significant and that lead to considerable uncertainties about energy accessibility, prices and supply reliability. For the Asian region, considerations of supply security are increasingly part of global energy security concerns. The global debate about long-term resource availability and supply, particularly of oil and gas, centres on the questions of whether adequate resources will exist to meet growing global demands in the next twenty-plus years, or whether the resources are adequate but will not be brought to market because of underinvestment and related higher costs in the oil and gas industry. Options for alternative supply sources and alternative fuels are, at the same time, becoming constrained by concerns about the impacts on climate change and, in the case of biofuels, on food and feed supplies. Adjustments to the expected continuing increases in energy trend prices will be generally difficult for developed countries, including Australia, but especially so for developing countries including those in Asia.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Markets, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- China, India, Asia, Australia, and Australia/Pacific
310. Nigeria: Ogoni Land after Shell
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The Nigerian government's 4 June 2008 decision to replace the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) as operator of oil concessions in Ogoni areas offers an opportunity for ending one of the longest-running conflicts between a multinational oil company and a local community in the Niger Delta. But to ensure that new friction does not develop between the Ogoni and Shell's successor company, it must be followed by a comprehensive program of consultations with local populations to address the remaining issues involved in oil production in this area, including environmental protection and distribution of revenues.
- Topic:
- Economics, Environment, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria