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52. Oil, Development, and the Politics of the Bottom Billion
- Author:
- Michael Watts
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The Economist of 4 August 2007 called it a “slip of a book” and “set to become a classic.” Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion argues that most of the bottom billion, the world's chronically poor, live in 58 countries (almost three quarters of which are African) distinguished by their lack of economic growth and the prevalence of civil conflict. Most are caught in a quartet of “traps,” two of which (in Collier's account they are deeply related) concern me here: the civil war trap (the average cost of a typical civil war is about $64 billion) in which 73% of the poor have been caught at one time or another; and a natural-resource trap (resource wealth or dependency turned sour), which accounts for another 30%. Collier's argument is not simply that civil conflict is expensive in human and developmental terms nor that wars are associated with economic stagnation and poverty (“low income means poverty, and low growth means hopelessness. Young men, who are recruits for rebel armies, come pretty cheap…Life itself is cheap”). Rather, he sees this nexus of forces as arising from resource dependency (“Dependence upon primary commodity exports…substantially increases the risk of civil war”). That is to say, there is a robust relationship between resource wealth and, paradoxically, poor economic performance, poor governance (resource predation), and the likelihood of falling into (debilitating and enduring) civil conflicts. Collier's book speaks to a wider interest taken by economists and political scientists in what seems like a challenge to economic orthodoxy, namely, that resource wealth (as a source of comparative advantage) turns out to be a “curse.” The “resource-curse” literature—whether emphasizing poor economic performance, state failure (oil breeds corruption or “resource rents make democracy malfunction”), or the onset of civil violence (blood diamonds, oil secession)—has generated a vast amount of research of which Collier and his colleagues have been central contributors.
53. Response to Kanbur
- Author:
- Colin Hottman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Within the economic development discourse, few ideas have been as contested as the “Washington Consensus.” It is widely considered to be both synonymous with neo-liberalism and hegemonic within the discourse. By placing the Washington Consensus within a historical context, Professor Kanbur shows that it emerged as a response to the statist development consensus of the 1950s–1970s. Several important lessons can be drawn from this circumstance. First, each distinct period of development policy, both the early state-directed policies and later the Washington Consensus, were promoted by economists and international financial institutions at the time. Second, the economic development discourse is event driven. Third, the new economic development consensus differs fundamentally from previous prescriptions since it is not “one size fits all.” Each of these lessons will be covered in Section II of this essay.
- Political Geography:
- Washington
54. Response to Kanbur - 2
- Author:
- Amy Damon
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Economic development theory and practice have been both highly contentious and vigorously debated over the past several decades. The debate ignites passion from civil society, academics, development professionals, communities in the Global South, and owners of global capital, all of whom, at times, disagree as to how to reduce global poverty, decrease inequality, and promote the equitable distribution of resources. For many years, development professionals have been looking for a “magic bullet” to achieve poverty reduction. Some serious candidates include international trade, foreign aid, and economic growth, or a combination of the three. However, after more than a half a century of effort, almost half the world still lives on less than $2.50 per day, and stark inequality and poverty persist.
55. Response to Watts
- Author:
- Christine Chung
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- First, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Professor Michael Watts for, to put it simply, a great presentation. After first reading a sample of Dr. Watts' work in my Geography Senior Seminar, coincidentally with Professor Moseley, I did not expect I would find myself sitting next to him for the purpose—of all things—to critique his work at the 15th Macalester International Roundtable. Perhaps I should have paid more attention in class! Not only was I intimidated by this feat because of the great length of his essay (which I might add is rivaled only by his cv), but also because at that moment I knew very little about the subject at hand: Oil, Development, and the Politics of the Bottom Billion. And I will confess to you now, I still know very little. My purpose in this article is not to tell Professor Watts where he went wrong or where he was out of line because I believe that after studying this subject for about thirty years, he probably knows what he is talking about. What I hope to bring to the table are my own questions that arose from the essay and my own perspective, as a Macalester student, as a budding Geography major, and as someone born and raised in the Global South, the developing world.
56. Response to Watts - 2
- Author:
- William G. Moseley
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Let me start by noting what a pleasure and inspiring opportunity it is to be commenting on the scholarship of Michael Watts. When I embarked on my field research for my master's thesis in the West African nation of Mali in 1991, I carried three texts with me into the field. These books were Paul Richards' Indigenous Agricultural Revolution (1985), Piers Blaikie's Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries (1985), and Michael Watts' Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria (1983). While the books by Richards and Blaikie were fairly compact, Michael Watts' tome added considerable heft to my baggage (so I showed real commitment in lugging it along). At the time I was not familiar with geography as a field of study, but rather was a student of natural resources management. It was Richards, Blaikie, and Watts who brought me to geography, and in particular to an interdisciplinary subfield known as political ecology. Only later would I learn in my Ph.D. studies what a pivotal figure Michael Watts had been in my chosen discipline and subfield.
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
57. Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Twentieth Century
- Author:
- Juan Cole
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Iraq and Israel/Palestine may on the surface appear to be very different societies with little in common. Iraq has its Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shiites, and its modern history has been a struggle over monarchy, republicanism, and the one-party state. Israel and Palestine are Jewish, Sunni Arab, and Christian Arab, and their central struggle has been over the shape of the Zionist state and the question of Palestinian statelessness. Iraq is a hydrocarbon state, while Israel and Palestine have diverse economies. The two can fruitfully be viewed through the same prism in two ways, however. On a comparative level, they share much in common, being multi-ethnic states with a background in Ottoman and British colonial administrative practices. Their fragility and ethnic instability have driven both internal civil wars and wars with neighbors. They have also had an important impact upon one another. The rise of Zionism in the Middle East and the Arab rejection of it robbed Iraq of its vibrant and influential Jewish community, with fateful results. It also displaced thousands of Palestinians to Iraq and hundreds of thousands to neighboring Kuwait. Iraqi troops fought Israel, with Iraq supporting its Palestinian foes. The Palestinians of Kuwait were further displaced by the Gulf War, and those of Iraq had to flee to Jordan and Palestine after 2003. The Israel lobby in the United States was one important mover in fomenting the 2003 U.S. overthrow of the Iraqi government, which propelled Iraq into chaos.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Middle East, Israel, Kuwait, Palestine, and Jordan
58. Forty Years in Search of Arab-Israeli Peace
- Author:
- William B. Quandt
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors is overlain with history and religion, but it is best understood as a product of two 20thcentury nationalist movements that sought self-determination and statehood in the same small piece of land. The British, who held the League of Nations' mandate over Palestine, never found a mutually acceptable plan for self-government by Jewish Zionists and Palestinian Arabs during their moment of preeminence (1920–1947). It fell to the newly formed United Nations to recommend partition into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Palestinians, backed by their Arab brethren, did not accept the partition, decided to wage war against the new state when the British withdrew, and were badly defeated, but not vanquished, on the battlefield.
- Political Geography:
- Israel and Arabia
59. The Arbayeen Years of Israeli Colonial Occupation: Palestinian Schools and Universities in the Occupied West Bank: 1967-2007
- Author:
- Thomas M. Ricks
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The 8 August 2008 death of Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine's greatest modern poet, did not go unnoticed by the global community of scholars of Palestine as obituaries of Mahmoud Darwish continue to appear in the media around the world. The poet from Birweh, one of the 400 destroyed villages within present-day Israel, was honored in Ramallah with three days of official mourning in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as a state funeral (usually reserved for the highest political officials). The past forty years (1967–2007) are an appropriate time period for reflection on the process of colonization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. While many Israelis may consider the past forty years a time of rejoicing and jubilation, Palestinians worldwide see it as a time of quiet mourning and reflection. The events following the June 1967 Six-Day War began the Israeli process of colonial occupation of the West Bank through the use of former British Mandate emergency laws, the establishment of illegal colonies (called settlements), and an array of rules and restrictions on movement within the territories. Limitations were imposed on imports and exports of manufactured goods and produce. Restrictions were placed on access to religious sites, aquifers and wells, and home and factory building permits. There was the establishment of arbitrary invasions and the closure of schools and universities. It is the latter colonial restrictions and prohibitions that are the subject of this essay, which serves as a litmus test of the extent of the colonial social and cultural transformation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories over the past four decades. It is in the schools, colleges, and universities of a society where much of the growth and future hope of a nation may be observed and which manifest the deeper social and cultural values and aspirations of the nation. Yet these institutions are vulnerable to military and police actions.
- Political Geography:
- Israel and Palestine
60. Difficult Dialogue: The Oslo Process in Israeli Perspective
- Author:
- Avraham Sela
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The Oslo Accords seemed to represent the new post-Cold War/ post-Gulf War era, which ostensibly heralded the beginning of a “new world order” under American hegemony. The weakened Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arab radical actors, such as Syria and Iraq; the belief that the American-led capitalist, market-oriented ideology had scored its final victory—best expressed by Francis Fukuyama's “End of History” thesis; Israel's vulnerability to Iraq's mediumrange missiles and to American financial pressures; and the perceived loss of Israel's status as a reliable U.S. ally in a tumultuous Middle East all seemed to have created ripe conditions for a historical breakthrough in the long-stalemated Arab-Israeli peace process.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, America, Israel, Arabia, Syria, and Oslo