This book presents a ‘critical reappraisal’ of the resource curse thesis and extends the analysis to consider political and social dimensions, and thus, the importance of structure in the petroleum sector’s governance model. It examines major challenges surrounding the governance of petroleum resources, and the implications for the economic growth and development of hydrocarbon-abundant countries as a result of ineffective economic, political, and social mechanisms. The book subsequently investigates a range of causal factors that may promote or hinder the effective management of oil and gas resources in the Kurdistan Region, which also has implications for the security of the wider region and for global energy security. The book also seeks to arrive at lessons learned and policy guidelines to help inform other new petroleum-exporting countries and regions about how to best manage their newfound wealth.

This book presents a 'critical reappraisal' of the resource curse thesis and extends the analysis to consider political and social dimensions, and thus, the importance of structure in the petroleum sector's governance model. It examines major challenges surrounding the governance of petroleum resources, and the implications for the economic growth and development of hydrocarbon-abundant countries as a result of ineffective economic, political, and social mechanisms. The book subsequently investigates a range of causal factors that may promote or hinder the effective management of oil and gas resources in the Kurdistan Region, which also has implications for the security of the wider region and for global energy security. The book also seeks to arrive at lessons learned and policy guidelines to help inform other new petroleum-exporting countries and regions about how to best manage their newfound wealth.

Examining the interplay between the oil economy and identity politics using the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a case study, this book tells the untold story of how extractivism in the Kurdish autonomous region is interwoven in a mosaic of territorial disputes, simmering ethnic tensions, dynastic rule, party allegiances, crony patronage, and divergent visions about nature. Since the ousting of Saddam Hussein, the de-facto borders of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have repeatedly changed, with energy interests playing a major role in such processes of territorialisation. However, relatively little research exists on the topic. This book provides a timely, empirical analysis of the intersections between extractive industries, oil imaginaries, and identity formation in one of the most coveted energy frontiers worldwide. It shines a light on relations between the global production networks of petro-capitalism and extractive localities. Besides the strained federal relationship with the Iraqi central government, the transformative effects the petroleum industry has had on Kurdish society are also explored in depth. Moreover, the book fills a gap in the literature on Kurdish Studies, which has devoted scant attention to energy-related issues in the re-imagination of Kurdish self-determination. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the extractive industries, energy studies, conflict studies, Middle Eastern politics, and political ecology.

Federalism is widely believed to be an efficient tool to quell ethnic conflict, yet recently there has been a pronounced global tendency among ethnic minorities to break away from larger nations. Iraqi Kurdistan, a region within the newly established Iraqi federation, also harbors plans to proclaim its own sovereign state. This volume analyses the factors that have caused the Kurds to change their minds about living in a federal Iraq, and the reaction of their neighbors and the international community at large. Using a broad theoretical framework of federal studies and secession theory, this book examines the causes for the breakup of ethnic federations fuelled by nationalism as well as the international regime of recognition of newly formed entities. It provides a first-hand account and theoretically informed interpretations of the Iraqi situation, showing that federalism is not always a universal remedy for ethnic and religious conflicts; it also emphasizes that the international recognition regime is a significant variable in peoples’ actions and aspirations to sovereignty. Enriching the ongoing debate on federalism and self-determination, this volume will appeal to scholars and students of politics, international relations, and comparative politics, as well as those interested in federalism, the Middle East and Kurdistan.

This book is about the flourishing scrap recycling industry, reconstruction, and state-making in Iraqi Kurdistan within the wider conditions of the war economy, ruination, and state disintegration in Iraq. Through a dialectical relationship between the afterlife and continuity of war over distinct but conjoined landscapes, it examines industrial work, labouring, and statelessness on a frontier territory near the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS). By documenting the advance of the global steelmaking industry, the spread and erosion of selective state sovereignty, and the struggle of dispossessed workers, the book sketches the economic geography of a contemporary market expansion over the northeast of Iraq in a relational and dynamic way.

This book examines the reduction of natural resource revenue dependency in resource-rich countries. Such countries experience lower economic growth due to factors of high volatility in commodity prices, reduction in accountability, undermining of the competitiveness of other economic sectors, and weak power of institutions. The analysis is based on an identified gap in the literature regarding how private sector development and public sector development affect the degree of dependency on resource revenue in natural resource-rich countries. This book studies the interaction between private and public sector development with dependency on natural resources, specifically exploring whether the two diversified factors lead to a decrease in the degree of dependency, which is important for economic growth and to overcome the "resource curse". Economic diversification is viewed as a long-term solution to the high economic dependency from natural resources. Private sector development and public sector reforms may lead to this diversification. The analysis of the book helps to shed light on private sector development, public services sector privatization, and a taxation system to diversify sources of income, with the objective to reduce dependency on natural resources extraction. This book is an invaluable read for public policymakers, the public and private sectors, law makers, and scholars of developmental studies.