Oil wars

Oil wars.

Ed. by Mary Kaldor et al.

Pluto Press

2007

294 pages

$29.95

Paperback

HD9560

Edited by Kaldor (director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics, UK), Karl (political science and Latin American studies, Stanford U., US), and Said (a research fellow at the London School of Economics), this book examines the relationship between oil resources and war in Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia. Taken as a whole, the case studies argue that there is an undeniable relationship between oil and war that at its most fundamental comes down to the issue of rent- seeking, whether it be rent-seeking among oil-consuming countries, rent-seeking involving non-state actors, or rent seeking within the oil-producing state and society. In order to counter the conflict- producing patterns caused by these different levels of rent-seeking behavior, it is necessary to understand the influence of the key features of oil--its strategic value, capital intensity, depletability, and price volatility--all of which the editors suggest can be turned into potential benefits for conflict mitigation. Distributed in the US by the U. of Michigan Press.

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