Synopses & Reviews
Energy Politics Brenda Shaffer Energy Politics is a timely, provocative, and pioneering exploration of an increasingly important topic.--Graham Allison, Harvard University An excellent introduction to the international politics of energy.--Charles Doran, Johns Hopkins University Brenda Shaffer has produced an essential guide to the energy politics of the twenty-first century. Her insights into the growing role of natural gas, and its implications for global security, are especially valuable.--Michael Ross, UCLA It is not uncommon to hear states and their leaders criticized for mixing oil and politics. The U.S.-led Iraq War was criticized as a war for oil. When energy exporters overtly use energy as a tool to promote their foreign policy goals, Europe and the United States regularly decry the use of energy as a weapon rather than accept it as a standard and legitimate tool of diplomacy. In Energy Politics, Brenda Shaffer argues that energy and politics are intrinsically linked. Modern life--from production of goods, to means of travel and entertainment, to methods of waging war--is heavily dependent on access to energy. A country's ability to acquire and use energy supplies crucially determines the state of its economy, its national security, and the quality and sustainability of its environment. Energy supply can serve as a basis for regional cooperation, but at the same time can serve as a source of conflict among energy seekers and between producers and consumers. Shaffer provides a broad introduction to the ways in which energy affects domestic and regional political developments and foreign policy. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on the politics surrounding oil, Shaffer broadens her scope to include the increasingly important role of natural gas and alternative energy sources as well as emerging concerns such as climate change, the global energy divide, and the coordinated international policy making required to combat them. Energy Politics concludes with examinations of how politics and energy interact in six of the world's largest producers and consumers of energy: Russia, Europe, the United States, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Brenda Shaffer served as Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University from 2000 to 2006. She currently teaches political science at the University of Haifa. 2009 ] 200 pages ] 6 x 9 ] 9 maps ISBN 978-0-8122-4200-3 ] Cloth ] $29.95s ] 19.50 World Rights ] Political Science Short copy: Energy and Politics provides a broad introduction to the ways in which energy affects domestic and regional political developments.
Synopsis
It is not uncommon to hear states and their leaders criticized for mixing oil and politics. The U.S.-led Iraq War was criticized as a war for oil. When energy exporters overtly use energy as a tool to promote their foreign policy goals, Europe and the United States regularly decry the use of energy as a weapon rather than accept it as a standard and legitimate tool of diplomacy.In Energy Politics, Brenda Shaffer argues that energy and politics are intrinsically linked. Modern life--from production of goods, to means of travel and entertainment, to methods of waging war--is heavily dependent on access to energy. A country's ability to acquire and use energy supplies crucially determines the state of its economy, its national security, and the quality and sustainability of its environment. Energy supply can serve as a basis for regional cooperation, but at the same time can serve as a source of conflict among energy seekers and between producers and consumers.Shaffer provides a broad introduction to the ways in which energy affects domestic and regional political developments and foreign policy. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on the politics surrounding oil, Shaffer broadens her scope to include the increasingly important role of natural gas and alternative energy sources as well as emerging concerns such as climate change, the global energy divide, and the coordinated international policy-making required to combat them. Energy Politics concludes with examinations of how politics and energy interact in six of the world's largest producers and consumers of energy: Russia, Europe, the United States, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
Synopsis
"Energy and Politics" provides a broad introduction to the ways in which energy affects domestic and regional political developments.
Synopsis
In the global north the commoditization of creativity and knowledge under the banner of a creative economy is being posed as the post-industrial answer to dependency on labour and natural resources. Not only does it promise a more stable and sustainable future, but an economy focused on intellectual property is more environmentally friendly, so it is suggested.
Resource Sovereigns argues that the fixes being offered by this model, popularised by market economics since the end of World War II, are bluffs; that development in the global south continues to be hindered by a global division of labour and nature that puts the capacity for technological advancement in private hands. The authors call for a multilayered understanding of sovereignty (an ostensibly outdated political concept in the world of global capital) arguing that it holds the key to undermining rigid accounts of the relationship between carbon and democracy, energy and development, and energy and political expression. Furthermore, a critical focus on energy politics is crucial to wider debates on development and sustainability.
Essential reading for those wondering how energy resources are converted into political power and why we still value the energy we take from our surroundings more than the means of its extraction.
Synopsis
Contested Powers looks specifically at the role of fossil fuels and renewable energy in the economic development of countries in Latin America. The contributors to this volume argue that the two currently dominant approaches to energy policyandmdash;either a focus on energy conservation or a focus on creating renewable energy resourcesandmdash;are actually two sides of the same coin. Both approaches are hindered by an underlying division of labor and capital that puts the means for ecologically sound technological advancement in the hands of a minority. The essays in Contested Powers go beyond Latin America to demonstrate that the key to addressing climate change and sustainable development around the globe is to first address the relationship between political and financial power and energy use and resources.
About the Author
John-Andrew McNeish is a social anthropologist with experience in research, education, and consultancy.Axel Borchgrevink is associate professor at the Institute for International Studies and Interpreter Education in Oslo, Norway.Owen Logan is a photographer, writer, and a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen. He is also a contributing editor to Variant Magazine.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Recovering Power from Energy: Reconsidering the Linkages between Energy and Development in Latin America and Beyond -
John Andrew McNeish, Owen Logan and Axel BorchgrevinkPart One: Lifeworlds and Energetic States
and#160;1. Socio-environmental conflicts and territorial disputes in Guatemala: Petroleum exploitation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve - Virgilio Reyes, FLACSO Guatemala
and#160;2. Petroleum activity and environmental injustice in Venezuela: an ethnography of of the community of Punta Cardon - Maria Victoria Canino, IVIC Venezuela
and#160;3. Conflict over Windfarms, Oaxaca, Mexico - Dominic Boyer, Rice University, USA
Part Two: National Visions and Contested Strategies
and#160;4. Gracias a Dios y al gobierno! Electric power struggles and discourses in Nicaraguan politics - and#160;Axel Borchgrevink, HIOA Norway
and#160;5. The politics of distributing hydrocarbon rents in Bolivia: The Gasolinazo of 2010 - Fernanda Wanderley, CIDES UMSA Bolivia
and#160;6. The Pre-Salt of the Earth? Social and political struggles over Brazil's newfound oil - Einar Braathen, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR).
Part Three: Porous Borders
and#160;7. Contested Powers: Energy Choices and Energy Struggles in Latin America - John-Andrew McNeish, UMB andCMI Norway
and#160;8. Sovereign Loss, Sovereign Things: The smuggling of energy resources from Bolivia to Peru - Cecilie Odegaard, UiB Norway
and#160;9. Doing Well in the Eyes of Capital: Neoliberal Therapeutics from Venezuela to Scotland - Owen Logan, University of Aberdeen
and#160;10. The Emperor's New Clothes: Biofuels Discourse in Brazil - Donald Sawyer, Center for Sustainable Development (CDS), University of Brasilia
Conclusion: Resource Sovereignties and the limits of 'Latin America'