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So you're saying that major investment will allow us to continue extracting oil esp from deposits which are harder to access i.e. in fields which have been significantly depleted and thus where the pressure has dropped; or where supplies are very viscous (e.g. the Orinoco Belt in the Venezuelan...

Right. But either way the situation is pretty screwed. Don't invest and this precipitates an energy crisis. Do invest and resources are depleted faster which in turn creates an energy crisis. Surely a no-win situation which ever way we go. And yet - at least on a micro-scale - there are...

Interesting argument Vim but not sure where it gets us? Ultimately - and regardless of whether the "investment in additional production capacity in the oil-producing countries" takes place - peak oil will occur (and may already have done so). Global demand for oil and its derivatives is rising...

In general i reckon this true but clearly there is some overlap between IR academics and think-tank bodies which formulate policy recommendations. And, to paraphrase Robert Cox a famous critical IR theorist, 'every theory is written for some one for some purpose'. Theory informs practice and...

Ha! You'll never get that back punk :p

The Global Vision: There is an old saying: 'Civilised man has marched across the face of the earth and left a desert in his footprints.' (Carter and Dale, Topsoil and Civilization, p.6) Today, worldwide, on land once rich with natural vegetation, we see deserts denuded of their topsoil, deserts...

We are witnessing an exponential growth in the human population globally and at the same time a steady reduction in the availability and quality of productive land. The so-called 'Green Revolution' is an unsustainable disaster. Large-scale agriculture today is built on mono-cropping which...

Totally OTM Kama. I'm guessing (apologies if incorrectly) that you're in the States and have studied IR at some level? Just wondering what your thoughts are on the state of the discipline over there? Is realism/neo-realism still the overwhelmingly dominant paradigm (perhaps increasingly fused...

No not thoroughly ;) [EDIT: I agree of course that the success (or otherwise) of developmental strategies rests on a whole host of social, cultural, political and external factors. So as not to derail this thread can you/anyone remember where this has been discussed at length before?]

Yup agreed

Although this a bit off topic i am interested to hear more about this scott. Ha-Joon Chang, a South Korean developmental economist, makes similar arguments in his book 'Kicking Away The Ladder' and in this article published in the Independent a while back. Although his arguments are powerful...

:confused: ??

As far as i understand mate, this a foreign firm which has been subcontracted to do a specific project and they are bringing their own workforce with them to do it.

Caught a bit of a discussion about the strikes on the radio. It was stressed that: a) a proper process of tendering for the work was conducted, with this Italian firm (Irem) being selected for their specific expertise at a competitive price; and b) that there will be no redundancies of any...

International Crisis Group (ICG) update on the situation in eastern DRC: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have struck a deal for military cooperation that risks a new escalation of combat in the eastern Congo and an even greater humanitarian crisis without assurances that it will...

Bit of both i reckon. Nkunda clearly has a lot to answer for and his incarceration should be welcomed. But then again the socio-political ramifications will be complex and may lead to more conflict - at least in the short-medium term. The arrest of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, coupled with a...

And this. Prunier is either incredibly prolific - less than 1 month between publication dates - or these are one and the same book (except published under different titles and by different publishers which don't make much sense :confused:). Either way he's a well respected authority on the Great...

Hi Scott. Both those links illustrate the point i was making perfectly! The LRA are an informal militia group who began fighting in Uganda; were heavily involved in conflict in Southern Sudan; and are now operational in North-Eastern DRC precisely because this area is not under the control of...

The transnational nature of conflict in the Great Lakes region According to this peice from the International Crisis Group (ICG), the DRC was the theatre for a truly regional war during the latter half of the 1990's which involved "a dozen African countries, either directly as combatants in the...

Surely this ain't the right question to be posing Vim. Instead: how do states (or indeed the disaggregated parts of states i.e. its various departments, offices, agents etc) interact with non-states actors and bit-part quasi-state institutions? Analysing the DRC conflict (for example) through a...