3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Oil as a diplomatic weapon: the strategies and politics of breaking dependency on energy needs by middle level developing countries with technological capacity(1997) Calela-Rodrigues, Jose JulioFaced with the potential threat of oil embargoes imposed by producer countries for political reasons, the consumer countries reacted by creating different alternatives which granted them some energy independence and security of supply by using alternative products and technologies available in their own countrles, Can a middle level developing country break out of the cycle of dependency in the area of energy? This dissertation investigates the strategy developed and implemented by South Africa between 1973 and 1993, which invested heavily in the generation of fuel extracted from coal in order to rescue its country from crisis and support it through critical periods of history.Item Natural resources and the crisis of nation-building in Africa: the case of oil and violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria(2012-03-13) Orievulu, Kingsley StephenThe preponderance of intrastate violent conflicts in natural resource rich states has been attributed to a number of causal mechanisms. Theorists of conflicts thus tend to explain these conflicts using different approaches, notably path dependency and rational choice. These approaches examine issues such as ethnicity and political marginalization, weak but repressive state capacity, strategic dilemmas, foreign instigators of conflict, and the very pervasive theory of the resource curse. Natural resources usually lie at the heart of many of these conflicts and the resource curse theory has helped explain the effects of states’ dependence on the primary resource sector. This resource curse is therefore corroborated by the rational choice approach which insists that economic incentives explain the upsurge in rebellious activities within natural resource rich but poor and dependent states, especially in Africa. This research interrogates the rational choice approach of Collier and Hoeffler against the backdrop of issues in the Niger Delta conflict. It argues that the greed versus grievance theory remains inadequate in the light of the historical and sociological circumstances underlying political struggles in the region. The research report concludes that an integrated but eclectic approach be applied in the study of this crisis.