This is a guest post by Jeff Colgan, an assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University.Policy responses to the resource curse are diffusing in the international community. In August, the U.S. enacted rules that could reduce...
With the rugby world cup semi-final only a few days away, it would take something like a broken ship dumping tons of oil and chemicals onto the country's beaches to get the country to talk anything...
In 1991, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse, the rump regime of Mohammad Najibullah finally cut a deal with Iran. The Iranians were allowed to supply the Hazarajat in central Afghanistan...
Earlier this year, all eyes were focused on Iceland in a very negative way for the second time in 18 months. First their banks collapsed in 2008 which caused many in Europe who had savings accounts...
With much of the country focused on the oil disaster in the Gulf, it's clear that America's energy policy is a wreck. My native state of North Dakota is booming from a major oil find. But, it too, is realizing the costs and curse of oil. The Bismarck Tribune is running an excellent series on the changing landscape of western North Dakota and worth a read.
Just when you thought that the Pirates couldn't get any more ambitious than seizing a freighter full of Ukrainian weapons...Somali Pirates seized a Saudi supertanker Tuesday. The tanker, one of the largest ships on the ocean, is the size of a US Aircraft carrier and three times a heavy when full. It has a crew of 25 (by comparison, an air craft carrier has a crew of over 5000). It carries over a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily crude output.It is, perhaps, one of the most valuable targets that the Pirates could have seized. Its contents are estimated to be worth over $100 million. Of course,...
Wander around the political blogsphere and chances are, at any given moment, you'll find partisans of all stripes bravely stripping away the deceit of their rivals. Indeed, despite the best efforts of the "MSM" to mislead us all, the bloggers will uncover the facts. In 2004 they poured over maps of the Mekong Delta to prove Kerry's falsehoods. They blustered about partisan weighting to prove that Bush was really behind in the polls. They continue their efforts in this cycle. Even as we speak (to take but one example), fearless keyboard detectives will reveal the frightening truth about...
What should we consider the limits of responsible campaigning? Like many people, my ideal campaign would focus on policy issues rather than attacks on character. A President's character matters, of course, and I see no ethical reason why attacks on character should be "out of bounds" in a Presidential campaign (but the qualities that make someone a good leader of the Executive Branch are, I would argue, quite different than those the electorate fixates upon). We can all agree, I imagine, that dishonest attacks--those predicated on clear cut falsehoods--have no place in an ethical political...
Sunday, the Washington Post launched a 4 part series giving an in-depth look at Oil. Sunday's part 1 gave a very solid primer on the global Oil economy, and today's installment looks at the impact that China's growing consumption has on both China and the world Oil market.Oil is a complex thing. It ties together nations who otherwise would have little need to interact. It turns regions into strategic security choke points, it lifts and crashes major economies, and it, broadly speaking, shapes an entire way of life. It brings together some of the most important issues in international...
Thanks to the calendar, the U.S. is about to celebrate the July 4 holiday with a long weekend. For many people, July 3 (today) will be like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or New Year's Eve. You might be in the office, but you aren't likely to get much work accomplished and you probably plan to leave early.In that spirit, may I offer an entertaining video that addresses something on most travelers' minds this holiday -- the supply of oil: Hat tip: Simon Dalby.
Was the Iraq war designed to break up OPEC?Do OPEC states now have a perverse incentive to favor continued instability in Iraq?I explore these questions today on my blog: "Oil: the third rail of the Iraq debate."Sorry, I probably just should have posted it here.
On Tuesday, I mentioned that second rule of Russia watching is "follow the money". The only problem is that following the money is not easy.I've been asked on occasion whether I think Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of YUKOS oil now in prison for tax evasion and fraud, is guilty or were the charges against him politically motivated.My answer: "Yes."Khodorkovsky gained control of YUKOS in the notorious loans-for-shares auctions, which were a breathtakingly audacious scheme to defraud the Russian government (and thereby the Russian people) at a time when the government was on the verge...