Posted: July 7th, 2015

The Politics and Geopolitics of Energy & Natural Resources

 

 

16-17 May 2015

 

This module analyzes historical patterns of competition and collaboration within and across boundaries, continents and oceans, by states and other actors, over the control of, and/or access to, energy resources. It focuses on the ways in which control over energy resources and transport routes have interacted with broader geopolitical strategies and looks at the possibility of “energy wars.”

 

Secondly, it examines the impact of technology on energy production and how it affects geopolitics. It looks at the controversy over so-called “peak oil,” considers the impact of the “shale revolution” on the energy industry, the energy positions of the major energy-producers, including those in the Middle East, and on geopolitics, and briefly looks at methane hydrates.

 

Lastly, it will also take note of competition over metals (rare earths, uranium, and copper, for instance), comparing the dynamics of this competition with that over energy resources.

 

  • A 2,500-word essay on a topic to be announced. This essay is due by 1 July

 

 

Plagiarism

It is essential that you take care not to present the ideas and writings of others as your own.

 

Students agree that by taking this course all papers may be subject to submission for a Textual Similarity Review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be added as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers in the future. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Required Readings

 

  1. Introduction to the Geopolitics of Energy Resources

Painter, David S. “Oil and the American Century.” Journal of American History 99 (June 2012): 24-39. . (www.journalofamericanhistory.org)

 

  1. The Postwar Petroleum Order and the Cold War

Painter, David S. “Oil, Resources, and the Cold War.” Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 1: 486-507. Edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

 

  1. The Oil Crises of the 1970s and the Cold War

Painter, David S. “Oil and Geopolitics in the 1970s: The Oil Crises of the 1970s and the Cold War.” Historical Social Research 39 (2014): 186-208.

 

  1. The Third Oil Shock

Dowling, Edward T. and Francis G. Hilton, ”Oil in the 1980s: An OECD Perspective,” 71-87. In The Oil Market in the 1980s: A Decade of Decline. Edited by Siamack Shojai and Bernard S. Katz. New York: Praeger, 1992.

 

  1. The Contemporary Energy Order

Yergin, Daniel. “Epilogue: The New Age of Oil.” In The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, 763-73. New York: Free Press, 2008. (Originally published, 1991).

 

Yergin, Daniel. “Gas on Water.” In The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, 312-26. Revised and Updated Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

 

  1. Technology and the New Order in Oil and Gas

 

Yergin, Daniel. “Unconventional.” In The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, 244-65. Revised and Updated Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

 

Yergin, Daniel. “The Natural Gas Revolution.” In The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, 327-44. Revised and Updated Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

 

  1. Oil Wars

Yergin, Daniel. “Crisis in the Gulf.” In The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, 750-62. New York: Free Press, 2008. (Originally published, 1991).

 

Duffield, John S. “Oil and the Decision to Invade Iraq.” In Why Did the United States Invade Iraq, 145-66. Edited by Jane K. Cramer and A. Trevor Thrall. London: Routledge, 2012.

 

 

  1. Energy Security in Perspective (15:30-17:00)

 

Gustafson, Thane. “Putin’s Petroleum Problem: How Oil Is Holding Russia Back—And How It Could Save It.” Foreign Affairs 91 (November/December 2012): 83-96.

 

 

Optional Reading

 

Kaldor, Mary, Terry Lynn Karl, and Yahia Said. Oil Wars. London: Pluto Press, 2007.

 

Klare, Michael T. The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources. New York: Picador, 2012.

 

Podobnik, Bruce. Global Energy Shifts: Fostering Sustainability in a Turbulent Age. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.

 

Rosenberg, Elizabeth. “Energy Rush: Shale Production and U.S. National Security,” Washington, DC: Center for New American Security, 6 Feb. 2014.

 

Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Free Press, 2008. (Originally published, 1991).

 

Yergin, Daniel. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. Revised and Updated Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

 

 

Documentary Film

 

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. DVD. Golden Valley, MN: Mill Creek Entertainment, 2013. This eight-part series is also available on YouTube.

 

 

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