This book offers a new look at the oil industry in West Africa, proposing to examine the entire region that has been viewed through the lens of Nigeria, Ghana and Gabon. The author argues that, in order to address peace and stability in the region, it is important to understand the transformative powers of petroleum revenue. The project also includes the author’s analysis of the problem on multiple levels: international oil companies, states, and local communities. Also, it takes a deeper look at the effects and importance of local communities in the above countries and discusses adequately the strategic challenges that petro-capitalism poses for West Africa’s regional stability and human security.
This book offers a new look at the oil industry in West Africa, proposing to examine the entire region that has been viewed through the lens of Nigeria, Ghana and Gabon. The author argues that, in order to address peace and stability in the region, it is important to understand the transformative powers of petroleum revenue. The project also includes the author’s analysis of the problem on multiple levels: international oil companies, states, and local communities. Also, it takes a deeper look at the effects and importance of local communities in the above countries and discusses adequately the strategic challenges that petro-capitalism poses for West Africa’s regional stability and human security.
This book examines the extent to which Russia’s strategic behavior is the product of its imperial strategic culture and Putin’s own operational code. The work argues that, by conflating personalistic regime survival with national security, Putin ensures that contemporary Russian national interest, as expressed through strategic behavior, is the synthesis of a peculiar troika: a long-standing imperial strategic culture, rooted in a partially imagined past; the operational code of a counter-intelligence president and decision-making elite; and the realities of Russia as a hybrid state. The book first examines the role of structure and agency in shaping contemporary Russian strategic behavior. It then provides a conceptual understanding of strategic culture, and applies this to Tsarist and Soviet historical developments. The book’s analysis of the operational code, however, demonstrates that Putinism is more than the sum of the past. At the end, the book assesses Putin’s statecraft and stress-tests our assumptions about the exercise of contemporary power in Russia and the structure of Putin’s agency. This book will be of interest to students of Russian politics and foreign policy, strategic studies and international relations.
An evenhanded and insightful picture of the obstacles, fiscal incentives, and growing potential for Western oil companies to ameliorate or even prevent conflict in the areas where they operate.
The political economy problems of Nigeria, the root cause for ethnic, religious, political and economic strife, can be in part addressed indirectly through focused contributions by the U.S. military, especially if regionally aligned units are more thoroughly employed.
Oil to Cash explores one option to help countries with new oil revenue avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.
Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants: Four of the 12 illicit flows reviewed in this report involve human beings. The first two concern movement between the countries of the region, one for general labour and one for sexual exploitation. The third concerns the smuggling of migrants from the region to the rich countries of the West, and the last focuses on migrants smuggled through the region from the poor and conflicted countries of South and Southwest Asia. Drug trafficking: The production and use of opiates has a long history in the region, but the main opiate problem in the 21st century involves the more refined form of the drug: heroin. In addition, methamphetamine has been a threat in parts of East Asia for decades (in the form of yaba tablets), but crystal methamphetamine has recently grown greatly in popularity. Virtually every country in the region has some crystal methamphetamine users, and some populations consume at very high levels.Resources: Resource-related crimes include those related to both extractive industries, such as the illegal harvesting of wildlife and timber, and other crimes that have a negative impact on the environment, such as the dumping of e-waste and the trade in ozone-depleting substances. In all cases, the threat goes beyond borders, jeopardizing the global environmental heritage. These are therefore crimes of inherent international significance, though they are frequently dealt with lightly under local legislation.Counterfeit goods: The trade in counterfeit goods is often perceived as a "soft" form of crime, but can have dangerous consequences for public health and safety. Fraudulent medicines in particular pose a threat to public health, and their use can foster the growth of treatment resistant pathogens.
In its fourth edition, this report focuses on recent developments in Africa's banking sectors and the policy options for all stakeholders. The study of banking sectors across all African sub-regions includes the results of the EIB survey of banking groups operating in Africa. Three thematic chapters address challenges and opportunities for financing investment in Africa: Crowding out of private sector lending by public debt issuance The state of bank recovery and resolution laws in Africa Policy options on how to finance infrastructure development. The report finds that in many African banking markets, the last two years saw a pause in financial deepening. However, a rising share of banking groups report improving market conditions and plan a structural expansion of their operations in Africa and a continued push for new technologies.
