September 18 — Scott Pegg on “The Real Price of Oil: Poverty, Corruption, Human Rights Violations and the Resource Curse”
If a country is endowed with an abundance of natural resources, you might think it’s lucky. Wrong, it’s cursed. If you’re a country that has been given a lot of stuff, it means your people are poor, your government is corrupt, you are prone to civil wars … and it just gets worse when wealthy outsiders try to “help” you. Ask Scott Pegg if there is any solution for resource-cursed countries besides destroying their oil fields.
When: 5:45 refreshments; 6:30 dinner; 7:30 presentation
Where: Woodstock Club 1301 W 38th St, Indianapolis
Kick-off dinner for the Indianapolis Committee on Foreign Relations. It’s $35 if you pay in advance, $45 pay at the door. Contact Courtenay Weldon for details at courtenay@cweldon.net. ICFR is a member-only organization and welcomes a guest(s) with advance notice for one meeting only. Future meetings require membership… which is a good deal.
This is from the ICFR blurb:
Dr. Pegg’s subject focuses on oil production more generally and its specific impacts in the Niger Delta. Beyond research and teaching, Scott is Chairman of the International Friends Committee of Bebor Nursery/Primary School in Bodo City, Ogoni, Nigeria, where he is actively raising money to build nursery and primary schools in two rural villages in southeastern Nigeria. Scott is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development, a non-governmental organization working in the Niger Delta and based in Eleme, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Scott joined the faculty at IUPUI’s Department of Political Science in 2001 transferring from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. He has published journal articles in African Affairs, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of Cleaner Production, Naval War College Review, PS: Political Science and Politics, Security Dialogue, Third World Quarterly, and The Washington Quarterly, and he is also the author of the non-governmental organization report Poverty Reduction or Poverty Exacerbation? World Bank Group Funding for Extractive Industries in Africa. Scott’s current research interests focus on the human rights and security implications of transnational corporations and the resource curse.
Scott received his BA in History and Political Science from the University of Richmond in 1987, his M.S. in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 1991, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia in 1997. He is the author of International Society and the De Facto State (Ashgate, 1998) and the co-editor of Transnational Corporations and Human Rights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). He is married to Tijen Demirel Pegg.
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
“Resource curse” is a powerful and important concept for understanding challenges of countries endowed with oil, diamonds, gold, etc. Not only Africa: Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Alaska. Scott knows the curse as well as anyone else, both from scholarship and from living with ordinary people in resource-cursed countries such as Nigeria. Good to see Scott talking to civic groups again, he was savaged by the Indiana Council on World Affairs a couple of years ago when the audience only seemed to hear him say “people who drive SUVs are murdering Nigerians.” Scott tends to be dubious about most ideas to relieve the resource curse, too many ideas are dumb or thin veils for efforts to rob poor countries yet again. Ask him what he thinks of the recent book, Escaping the Resource Curse.
But it would be a pity if Scott were to sound as cynical or fatalistic as other academic critics of globalization and contemporary capitalism. He himself has worked hard to raise money to help people in Nigeria escape the effects of their curse, and he has brought many Nigerian activists to help educate Hoosiers. He must think these efforts will have some effect, especially if they are replicated tens or hundreds of times. Push him on this.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
Keep the “resource curse” in mind when you attend discussions of how to help reform Africa or the Middle East … the strengths of these countries look more like weaknesses, terrible and perhaps unsurmountable weaknesses. But also keep in mind the examples of citizen diplomacy from Indy that are trying to surmount these challenges.
Know before you go:
Read a few news articles about how the resource curse is manifesting itself every day around the world.
For more information …
Check out the Provocate “For More Information …” page on the Resource Curse.
And for your listening pleasure …
