For centuries, the people of the Niger Delta were content to engage in farming, fishing and other endeavours, unaware that underneath their soil was one of nature’s most prized minerals, Petroleum. With the discovery of oil by Shell D’Archy, the forerunner of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation in 1956 at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State and its consequent exportation two years later, oil production has remained a mixed bag of fortune and misfortune
This blog went silent again for a few months and I’m very sorry about that. I taught International Security this term and spent a lot of time thinking about the war in Afghanistan and the prospects of Iranian proliferation. And not much time thinking about climate change politics.
At Copenhagen in December 2009, during the much-hyped leaders’ summit to negotiate a climate change deal, American hypocrisy met Chinese obstructionism. Americans demanded emissions reductions without a credible plan at home. According to most reports, the Chinese stripped the Copenhagen Accord of much of its early ambition, including seemingly distant commitments to 2050. The West plans carbon conditionality. The rest expect reciprocity, and some countries will be in a position to demand it.
The Guardian website has a portal that allows users to search the Wikileaks database for particular US embassy cables regarding issue areas or specific countries. A search for “climate change” turns up 14 cables — and 4 recent Guardian stories about those particular cables.
Hauntingly, it seems that the Bush years will never go away. Combined, the wars have already cost a trillion dollars and both meters continue to run. Bush created new entitlements at home and abroad, and then cut the taxes needed to support them. On his watch the economy went into a lingering, deep recession and the government’s budget shifted from substantial surpluses to deficits that soar beyond likely redemption
Realist arguments are a combination of two discrete, though often intersecting, literatures. The first emerging from the works of classical realists such as Thucydides and Machiavelli, and the second spreading across the history of Western philosophy. One of the most significant aspects of realism is its use of historical evidence, as if one can detect a timeless wisdom of world politics centred upon the principles of realpolitik
The consequences of Wikileaks lie not in the information it provides to policymakers, but in the new perspective it may grant the general population. By bringing new evidence into public discourse, the document leak may change the public view of Iran policy, and thus policies themselves as the Arab States, America and its NATO allies react
The EU builds its identity based on collaboration as an element of its ideological matrix. If not as a superpower, the EU in the 21st century, could be a medium, or a multilateral agora, which through its international Kantianism, will initiate the creation of new, and the preservation of existent multilateral organizations
The world is facing a sea of troubles, and is increasingly struggling to see a route through them. Indefinite growth was never going to be possible in a finite world. Pollution is increasing, whether of noise, light, plastic, chemicals or a range of other by-products. Amenity and quality of life is being degraded, as wild spaces are encroached upon and we live ever more congested and crowded lives
A grand bargain must accept the reality of two Korean states. So long as Pyongyang and Seoul see themselves in a win-or-lose struggle, neither can contemplate a closer union or even a confederation. Each concerned country will challenge aspects of this accord. On reflection, each should perceive that it will gain from the package and that no better deal is available.
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