2008: Handling Turkey’s Crisis And Our Addiction to Middle East Oil
August 5th, 2008 by Matt
A couple unrelated posts to pass along from the folks over at The Washington Note:
Last Thursday, one day after Turkey’s Constitutional Court narrowly decided against throwing out the moderate Islamic ruling AKP party, Ben Katcher criticized the State Department’s neutral policy position on the issue, saying it “undercut the administration’s policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East”. Katcher also posed an important question yet to be directly addressed by either candidate–whether the U.S. should seek to isolate, marginalize, or engage moderate Islamist parties like AKP as part of our efforts to promote democracy in the region.
Today, Steve Clemons criticizes both McCain and Obama for proposing “short-term, knee-jerk responses” to the current energy policy dilemma. Clemons implores both candidates to “work harder at thinking through what the characteristics of a new equilibrium in the Middle East and globally might look like”, so they are as prepared as possible to create a more stable, durable situation upon taking office.
Posted in Election 08, Islam and Democracy, Oil, Political Islam, Secularism, Turkey, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
A Grand Strategy
July 31st, 2008 by Sarah
Kenneth Pollack joins WashingtonPost.com readers online to discuss his recently published book “A Path Out Of The Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East.” Pollack answers questions about America’s dependence on foreign oil, missed opportunities to develop a relationship with Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In regard to U.S. influence in the region, Pollack recommends that the U.S. “help ALL of the Muslim Middle Eastern states, including the rich Gulf states, begin a long-term process of reforming their economic, political and social systems to deal with the underlying problems that generate the endemic instability and terrorism of the region, and that create the greatest threats to us and to them.”
Posted in Iran, Israel, Oil, Palestine, US foreign policy | Comment »
Misuse of Oil Revenues
July 17th, 2008 by Sarah
Kenneth Pollack at the Brookings Institution warns that misuse of oil revenues is likely to worsen the region’s stability over time. Because of a lack of investment in long-term political and economic gains, Pollack recommends “shifting from bankrolling capital-intensive industries that guarantee a high return for the investor to financing labor-intensive industries that could increase employment and develop a more capable work force.”
Posted in Oil | Comment »
Sanctioning Iran
July 17th, 2008 by Sarah
Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) announce bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation that would “authorize states and local governments to divest from companies that do business with Iran’s oil and gas sectors and cut off shipment through other countries of sanctioned technology.”
Olivier Guitta at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies argues that specific sanctions against Iran’s energy sector could be the most powerful tool to avert military escalation. “An international export ban of refined petroleum products to Iran, coupled with an embargo on the 2.5 million barrels per day (3 percent of world consumption) that Iran exports” could plunge Iran “in a deep economic and social hole that could jeopardize the regime.”
Posted in Iran, Oil, US foreign policy | Comment »
Oil Wealth and the Middle East
July 16th, 2008 by Adam
Kenneth Pollack at the International Herald Tribune has an interesting article on how Middle East nations have failed to utilize their immense oil wealth to improve their societies. Even though nations are investing more oil revenue domestically than in the past, Pollack says, “much of the money is being re-invested in projects intended to produce quick profits for investors rather than long-term political and economic gains.” According to Pollack, without oil revenue being used to address structural economic reforms, the massive infusion of wealth could exacerbate many nations’ social imbalance, fostering instability and driving citizens into the arms of extremists.
Posted in Oil, Reform | Comment »
2008: Obama’s Energy Speech
June 25th, 2008 by Matt
Since energy policy has dominated recent campaign news, and since I devoted several paragraphs to John McCain’s energy speech last week, which was littered with POMED-relevant rhetoric, I figured I’d link to Barack Obama’s energy speech given yesterday in Las Vegas. However, Obama’s speech focuses entirely on domestic remedies for our dependence on foreign oil, and the only mention of the Middle East comes in a clause lamenting President Bush’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia to beg the Kingdom to supply more oil. You’ll have to take a look at previous speeches for more specifics on how a revamped energy policy will affect the Middle East and the world beyond our borders.
Posted in Election 08, Oil, US politics | Comment »
2008: Intra-OPEC Disputes and the U.S. Elections
June 19th, 2008 by Matt
Gal Luft, posting at Harvard’s Middle East Strategy blog, theorizes that recent intra-OPEC squabbles between Saudi Arabia and Iran over oil output are being influenced by each country’s hopes for the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections. Luft thinks Saudi Arabia is rooting for McCain because of their fear that an American withdrawal would strengthen Iran, and thus the Saudis might release more oil thinking a stabilization in prices would help McCain’s chances in the fall. One then has to wonder if the Saudis think McCain’s energy independence plan is merely concocted as lip service or political expediency, considering it contains some pretty harsh words for certain authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
Posted in Election 08, Iran, Oil, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
2008: McCain’s Energy Speech
June 18th, 2008 by Matt
John McCain’s energy speech yesterday contained several lines which were bait for POMED-ers like us. Here’s the money quote:
“Even if our economy were somehow immune to this threat, the vast wealth we shift to the Middle East, Venezuela, Angola, and elsewhere would still have a third harmful and perverse effect. It would continue to enrich undemocratic, unjust, and often corrupt regimes. Some of the most oil-rich nations are also the most stagnant societies on earth. And among the many luxuries their oil wealth affords them is the luxury of ignoring their own people. In effect, our petrodollars are underwriting tyranny, anti-Semitism, the brutal repression of women in the Middle East, and dictators and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere.
We cannot allow the world’s greatest democracy to be complicit in such corruption and injustice.”
McCain also discussed the situation of “dependency and debt” caused by, for instance, borrowing Saudi money to buy Saudi oil, and the misfortune of our energy policy being reduced to American leaders “supplicating for lower prices before the sheiks and princes of OPEC.”
McCain’s prescription for reducing our dependence is a combination of more domestic exploration and capacity-building (outside of ANWR), better regulations governing the oil futures market, clean energy innovation, and nuclear power.
Posted in Election 08, Oil, US foreign policy, US politics | 2 Comments »
Kingdom of Saud
May 16th, 2008 by Pasha
Grant Swank of The Conservative Voice plugs a website decrying honor killings, mistreatment of women, and other atrocities. He notes a “case focused particularly on a woman who was tortured to death by her employer,” which a Saudi official described as “‘the will of Allah,’ with no apology given.”
As President Bush exchanges “civilian” nuclear technology for oil, Gal Luft at Middle East Strategy at Harvard speculates that the Saudis are truly aiming to counterbalance potential Iranian hegemony in the region. Speaking of speculators, Luft dismisses the Saudis blaming rising oil prices on speculators as “utter nonsense.”
Posted in Human Rights, Oil, Saudi Arabia, Women | Comment »
Democratic Recession
May 7th, 2008 by Stephen
In a New York Times op-ed this morning, Thomas Friedman parallels the emerging economic recession in the U.S. with a global “democratic recession,” borrowing a term from the Hoover Institution’s Larry Diamond. He cites Freedom House data describing 2007 as “by far the worst year for freedom in the world since the end of the cold war,” as 38 countries declined in their Freedom House scores while only 10 improved. Friedman largely attributes the recession on freedom worldwide to the role of oil in propping up authoritarian regimes, summarizing, “As the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down. As the price of oil goes down, the pace of freedom goes up.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Oil | Comment »
Growing Rifts in Arab World?
April 16th, 2008 by Stephen
In the Daily Star, Rami Khouri examines the increasing polarization of the Arab world between the oil-rich states of the Gulf who are benefiting from the sharp rise in oil and gas prices on the one hand, and the remaining Arab states of the Levant and North Africa on the other. Khouri breaks down this polarization into seven rifts between the two groups: wealth/poverty, growth/stagnation, national cohesion/fragmentation, pluralism/insularity, order/disorder, rule of law/lawlessness, religiosity/secularism.
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Oil, Sectarianism, Secularism | Comment »
Oppression for Oil?
March 31st, 2008 by Amanda
In a Daily Star op-ed, Tamer Mallat sees the protection U.S. of oil interests as a ” leading factor in the conflicts of the contemporary Middle East,” adding that by maintaining alliances with most of the region’s major oil producers” the United States has maintained a “shortsighted” foreign policy.
He urges policymakers to widen their scope in region by creating a consistent message and agenda.
By focusing so intently on guarding reserves in oil-rich countries, the U.S. is “in the process buttressing their autocratic regimes. ” Instead Mallat believes that “the U.S. must make defense of democracy and human rights a real policy priority.”
Posted in Oil, US foreign policy | Comment »
‘Petrocracy’ vs. Democracy
December 20th, 2007 by Sean
Today in U.S. News and World Report, Fouad Ajami argues that oil wealth leads to increased state confidence and authoritarianism, “casting aside popular will” and leading to ‘irrational’ results in countries including Qatar, Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Iran, Libya, Oil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
POMED NOTES: Center for Global Development
November 29th, 2007 by Amanda
The Center for Global Development hosted an event today focusing on “Worldwide Governance Indicators” (WGI) and governance in African countries.
This event featured Daniel Kaufmann, Director of Global Programs at the World Bank Institute, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Vice President of the Africa Region at the World Bank, Morton H. Halperin, Director of US Advocacy at the Open Society Institute and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Aart Kraay, Lead Economist at the Development Research Group in the World Bank.
In the opening statement Daniel Kaufmann defined governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised, including the process by which governments are selected and replaced. He also highlighted six key dimensions of governance: (1) government effectiveness, (2) controlling corruption, (3) voice and accountability, (4) political stability, (5) rule of law, and (6) regulatory quality. Kaufmann also posed the question “Why does governance matter?”
For POMED notes on this event, click here
For more information on Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), click here
For more information on Governance and Anti-Corruption, click here
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Foreign Aid, Oil, Reform | Comment »
Resolving the Kurdish Dilemma
November 2nd, 2007 by Celest
Edward P. Joseph and Michael E. O’Hanlon, in the Wall Street Journal (subscription only), argue that the US needs to deal with the PKK, oil and Kirkuk issues at same time, making deals on all three, in order to solve the problems. They suggest that the US should make Kirkuk a “special status” city so that Turkey isn’t worried about oil revenue allowing the Kurds to create an independent Kurdistan. It would also force the Kurds to negotiate more in an oil revenue sharing agreement in Iraq.
Posted in Iraq, Oil, Turkey | Comment »
More Thoughts on Iraq
September 13th, 2007 by Celest
Several sources, including an editorial in The Washington Times and Adam Graham-Silverman and John M. Donnelly in CQ (subscription only), discuss reactions in Washington after the Crocker-Petraeus Report and suggest that there will not really be a change in policy despite what the Democrats want. Michael Cohen sums it up, saying, “no matter what the Congress passes, the President will veto it.”
Juan Cole argues that all pressure is off reform in Baghdad after Crocker-Petraeus Report, and comments on the “circular colonial logic” of keeping troops in Iraq.
Daily Kos and Josh Marshall, in Talking Points Memo, discuss the latest failure in attempts at oil sharing. Also, David Ignatius, in the Washington Post, questions what will happen in Iraq when we eventually leave.
Posted in Iraq, Oil | Comment »
Josh Marshall on Aim of Iraq War
May 31st, 2007 by Stephen
On his blog, Josh Marshall continues his discussion of whether democracy is really a “guiding aim” of the war in Iraq, or just cover for trying to control resources.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Iraq, Oil | Comment »
Hashimi Relents on Withdrawal from Government; Two New CFR Pieces on Current Political Challenges in Iraq
May 10th, 2007 by Stephen
Iraqi Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi has apparently backed off his threat to withdraw from the Maliki government if his demands are not met by this Tuesday, May 15. Hashimi met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday and with Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday. The Council on Foreign Relations has a pair of interesting new pieces on Iraq by Lionel Beehner - this look at major challenges still facing the Maliki government, and this one focusing on the difficulties of reaching agreement on an Iraqi oil law.
Posted in Iraq, Oil | Comment »
American Interest Piece on Oil and Democracy
April 12th, 2007 by Stephen
In an article for the American Interest (subscription required), Oxford University Economics Professor Paul Collier explores the relationships between oil and democracy. He examines the development of democracy in oil states such as Indonesia and Nigeria, the search for oil in low-income democracies like Senegal and East Timor, and U.S. goals of bringing democracy to the oil economies of the Middle East.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Oil | Comment »
NY Times Oped on Iraqi Oil Law
March 13th, 2007 by Stephen
In this morning’s New York Times, Antonia Juhasz argues that the proposed Iraqi oil law benefits international oil companies, but “to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.”
Posted in Iraq, Oil | Comment »
