I II RESOURCE CURSE Having Resources is Great Right At the mercy of the market and its price fluctuations too reliant on your goods At the mercy of the demand of others other competition Can create a situation of dependency needing industrialized powers to export to Most countries become reliant on exporting their raw goods without ever industrializing Many countries abundant in resources do well in the short term but decline economically if they do not industrialize only one sector of their economy is benefitting the people often do not Resource Curse Having an abundance of natural resources inhibits development in other areas A Poor Governance theory developed in 1990s goes against theory that problems seen in these countries are due to Western Imperialism Governments can take advantage of these resources and keep the wealth o Not only economic Increases risk of conflict creates greater inequality inhibits democracy and contributes to corruption o Instead of these resources bringing an increased quality of life they tend to bring hardship to the people 1 Authoritarianism Leadership is too powerful state is the one who directly benefits from profits It is the job of the government to distribute the wealth 2 Corruption GDP is compared with Human Development Index they should be linked together however they aren t Nigeria example 1 Corruption benefitting the individual the leader himself 2 Systemic corruption within the system of government the strongest will prevail and then oppress everyone else 3 Global corruption not just internal they are selling their resources to the international community they facilitate the corruption offering tax havens Blood Diamonds B Conflict Resources will lead to internal conflict 1 Blood Diamonds in Angola Fought to break free of Portugal and then immediately break out in Civil War proxy war from US and Soviet Union lasted from 1975 2002 When Cold War ends this Civil War is still going on but they are no longer being supported by US and USSR for capital The money to fuel this war came from diamonds 1992 1998 estimated blood diamond sales brought in 3 4 billion People are buying them which contributes to the system of corruption The UN in 1998 issued sanctions against Angola to try to stop Blood Diamonds sales and their Civil War 1967 1970 Nigeria has Civil War over control of oil resources 2 Oil in Iraq Kirkuk oil fields represent about 40 of oil reserves in Iraq Zero sum conflict winner takes all Whoever has control of Kirkuk controls all the benefits of oil reserves C Implications for the Local Economy 1 Dutch Disease Direct relationship between exploitation of your natural resources and a decline in the industrial sector Demand for your resources will raise the value of your currency which is bad for your local economy things are more expensive on domestic market and cheaper on international which outbids local competition Resource rich areas tend to be places that don t call for high levels of employment Foreign Investment is going to places other than industries 2 Commodity Price Fluctuation When fluctuation helps you make more money the state can use it for local investment provide services to the people What happens when prices fall There is still a demand for investment and services but no revenue to provide them States begin to borrow in order to provide these 3 Debt 4 Corruption 5 Taxes When things are good you can easily borrow based on the face that there is high demand for your resources Countries borrow based on success of their resources but when their demand falls they are stuck in debt Economy killer profit going to government Up to government to distribute it the people do not benefit In resource rich authoritarian government money is spent on acquisition Often times with underdeveloped resource rich countries there are no taxes Countries without taxes lack legitimacy they help to create modern bureaucracy Government needs the people to pay taxes people need the government to provide services Create greater transparency and accountability This undermines corruption NUCLEAR DETERRENCE I Why Don t We Use Our Nuclear Weapons 5 major Nuclear Powers are USA Russia Great Britain France and China A Destructiveness Firebombing Tactical Nuclear Weapons TNW Daisy Cutter The point of weapons is to be destructive why would this keep us from using them Non nuclear destruction of cities in WWII Airpower can be used to bring war to an end if you use it on military targets However if you use it on civilian targets you break the moral of a country and they lose the will to fight Dresden 35 000 killed from firebombing 50 000 in Hamburg over 80 000 in Tokyo the USA and Great Britain responsible for these firebombing Aug 6 Hiroshima Aug 9 Nagasaki Not military targets These cities were picked because they had not been bombed before so we could test how destructive they were 80 of Americans post WWII supported atomic bombing of Japan We have not used Tactical Nuclear Weapons B Deterrence Our ownership of nuclear weapons has deterred other powers from making war against us Deterrence using the threat of force to stop an attack before it starts We have been involved in many conflicts wars since our acquiring of nuclear weapons Deterrence theory not true C Battlefield Utility TNWs and Depleted Uranium Artillery shells gravity bombs landmines torpedoes Depleted Uranium high density lends itself to tank armor shell coating Nuclear weapons have high battlefield utility theory not true D They re Wrong Immoral Human Tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Public opinion turns against the use of nuclear weapons Is it worth it to use them seen as immoral because of human tragedy Long term effects of radiation beyond death toll of 70 000 upon impact By end of 1945 months after bomb dropped the death toll doubles to 140 000 By 1950 the death toll raises to 200 000 Public becomes aware of effects of radiation Atmospheric contamination II III New Norm of Deterrence Retaliation fears nuclear deterrence Effects on Policy No one willing to entirely ban nuclear weapons A NPT 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty tries to control limit nuclear weapons NPT signers are everyone but Israel North Korea pulled out Pakistan India and Iran is in non compliance trade embargoes on those in non compliance B Biological and Chemical Weapons After WWI major backlash against use of gas 1925 Geneva Protocols which ban use of gas in warfare 1972 Biological weapons treaty 1993 Chemical