27 February 2008

Foreign Affairs reviews book by GPPi Fellow

GPPi Fellow Ricardo Soares de Oliveira’s book, entitled “Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea,” received a welcoming review by the leading political journal Foreign Affairs in its March/April 2008 issue.

Soares de Oliveira focuses on the impact of oil in the politics of West Africa around the Gulf of Guinea where it is estimated that one tenth of the world’s oil reserves lie. According to Soares de Oliveira, revenues stemming from the oil industry have had a largely negative impact on the quality of government. Despite the rapid influx of money brought in by the oil economy, the rise in oil prices around the world and the increasing investment in the region by Western oil companies, governments in West Africa have consistently failed to divert the money towards their citizens welfare and security. Instead, what we see is oil revenues being used to preserve the governments hold on power and to nourish the wealth of the small elites leading Soares de Oliveira to label them as “successful failed states.”

Commenting on the book was Nicolas Van De Walle of the Foreign Affairs journal who remarked Soares de Oliveira’s study on the topic to be drawing on a wealth of information “to provide a rich political sociology of the oil curse in West Africa.”

To read the full review, please click here.

For more information, please contact Ricardo Soares de Oliveira.

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