April 2-3, 2009
(With generous funding from the United States Institute of Peace)
Western Africa’s burgeoning oil and gas development has attracted growing international attention. Instability and deep developmental problems among oil-exporting states pose challenges of broad significance. “The Politics of Development and Security in Africa’s Oil States” brings together an international group of scholars and practitioners to assess global, national, and local implications of resource wealth in sub-Saharan Africa’s petroleum exporting countries.
Are African oil producers locked into a harmful pattern that predicts further instability and economic malaise, or are there political and economic strategies that can shift these countries toward development and security? We consider institutional change, democratic reform, and equitable resource control as catalysts of lasting security in the region. The conference will examine the international context for Africa’s energy exports; domestic impacts on governance, economic management, and popular welfare; and local responses to government policies and foreign firms.
Conference Power Point presentations:
- Supply and Production in World Energy Markets: Trends and Prospects, by Monica Enfield
- China’s Energy Strategy in Africa, by Bo Kong
- Corruption and Reform in Nigeria’s Oil Sector, by Alexandra Gillies
- New Producers and the Challenges of Transparency: The Case of Ghana, by Ian Gary
- Security and Conflict Transformation in the Niger Delta, by Judith Asuni
- How Dependency Bedevils Development in the Niger Delta, by Deirdre LaPin