Greenhouse Gas Politics & the Oil Producers

Saudi Arabia and many other wealthy, yet still “developing,”  oil-producing states produce a great deal of oil for export to the  world’s industrializing economies, and consume a great deal of oil at  home as part of their own development. Oil is often heavily subsidized  for domestic consumption and used very inefficiently, as with Saudi Arabia’s use of oil for over half its electrical generation (Links to an external site.).  These use patterns and the centrality of oil to the economies and  societies of these countries creates phenomena that social scientists  like to study and classify. Many of these analysts, such as Michael Ross at the University of California at Los Angeles (Links to an external site.),  have created the “resource curse” concept to describe maladies and  pitfalls of these societies, often forgetting that both the US  and the Soviet Union were and still are large oil producers. In  considering aspects of these, address yourself to the questions below.

Based on your considered review of the Michael Bradshaw text on the “Resource Curse” (Links to an external site.) as well as your reflection upon all of the modules, evaluate the questions below:

• Are developing countries with abundant oil resources cursed? Are  their societal, economic, and political structures doomed to be  malformed and detrimental to their own populations?
• What role do foreign actors play, if any, in these processes (e.g.,  states like Russia, the US, and Britain, and oil majors like ExxonMobil,  Royal Dutch Shell or China’s CNOOC)?
• Your initial post should be at least 350 words and must substantively  integrate the assigned readings in the instructions with proper APA (Links to an external site.) style formatting.

Krauss, C. (2007, December 9). Oil-rich nations use more energy, cutting exports. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.vlib.excelsior.edu/docview/433747147/706A4BEBE0C472APQ/1?accountid=134966

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (2017, July 5). Russia To Start Supplying Gas To China By Pipeline In December 2019 (Links to an external site.). Retrieved   from https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-gazprom-start-supplying-gas-china-power-siberia-pipeline-december-2019/28596838.html

RT. (2014, September 1). Putin breaks ground on Russia-China gas pipeline, world’s biggest. RT TV. Retrieved from http://rt.com/business/184176-russia-china-gas-siberian-power/

Van Loon, J., & Paton, J. (2014, December 8). Jobs trump climate in bromance of Canada and Australia . Bloomberg News.  Retrieved  from   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-07/jobs-trump-climate-as-bromance-ties-canada-australia-carbon-view