Oil for development … or for decay?

Åse Gilje Østensen (CMI) leads a conversation with
Javier Corrales,
Jonathon Moses, and
Ricardo Soares de Oliveira on how countries and societies cope with the challenges of vast oil resources. While Norway has prospered since discovering oil 50 years ago, oil seems to have been a curse in Angola and Venezuela, two countries now experiencing a combined economic, social and political crisis – and Venezuela is close to full break-down. These contrasting experiences raise many questions of how societies can or should cope with oil. Why in some countries does oil lead to underdevelopment, chaos and authoritarianism? Can the case of Norway be of any use to those wishing to bring Angola and Venezuela out of the oil curse?

Javier Corrales is Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of political science at Amherst College. He has written extensively on the political economy of Venezuela.

Jonathon Moses is professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and has recently co-authored a forthcoming book on Norway’s management of oil resources.

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira is associate professor in African Politics at the University of Oxford (St Peter’s College). He published books on oil and politics in Africa, and on Angola since the civil war.

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Photo: Sirena Chin / Steve Conover / Flickr