Oil, Politics, Economy, Society

The course offers an historical and comparative approach to understanding the\ud transformations brought by the oil industry, especially in developing nations. Oil has\ud enormous economic and strategic value; countries have sought to benefit from that\ud potential and struggled to deal with foreign oil companies. Struggles between producing\ud and consuming nations and struggles between producing nations and oil companies\ud have had profound consequences. Market shocks and domestic consequences of oil\ud commodity booms, cartel formation, and reverse oil shocks have transformed\ud economies. Oil also has a paradoxical effect that works against democracy and\ud effective government. This petro-state effect or "resource curse" affects countries as\ud diverse as Venezuela and Nigeria and has been difficult to overcome. The U.S. is\ud showing signs of one petro effect, that other economic sectors suffer: U.S. agriculture\ud appears to be losing railroad priority to oil shippers. In addition to larger economic and\ud political effects, oil drilling and transportation has damaged larger ecological systems\ud with devastating effects for agriculture and fishing. These are among the issues we will\ud confront in this course, as we consider they way they present in different countries and\ud shaped by international regimes and actors