The Niger Delta region of Nigeria occupies a significant part of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa and is of growing strategic interest to the global economy. The region not only produces immense oil wealth and has become the engine of Nigeria's sustainable development; it also presents a paradox, because the vast oil revenues have barely made an impact on the regions' own pervasive local poverty. Nigeria stands as the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, with over 35 billion barrels of proven reserves. The shorter distances American tankers must travel to pick up crude that is both lighter and "sweeter" than the Middle-east variety has moved U.S. energy officials to stake that the Gulf of Guinea will provide a quarter of U.S. crude by 2010. This would place the region in front of Saudi Arabia as a leading oil supplier. Thus any instability in the region that threatens production drives up crude oil prices, which has a ripple effect on the global economy dominated by the US. Peace in the region is thus essential and the path to sustainable peace is through generating wealth and prosperity for its peoples. This book offers ways to harness the huge resources of the region and transform it into a modern integrated economy that will raise the level of prosperity for its peoples as well as contribute to sustainable peace. But also of equal importance for lasting prosperity, the book tackles issues of conflict management, security, human rights and governance. Africa has been described as the last great investment frontier and the Niger Delta has boundless opportunities for foreign investment.

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The recent escalation in the violent conflict in the Niger Delta has brought the region to the forefront of international energy and security concerns. This book analyses the causes, dynamics and politics underpinning oil-related violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It focuses on the drivers of the conflict, as well as the ways the crises spawned by the political economy of oil and contradictions within Nigeria's ethnic politics have contributed to the morphing of initially poorly coordinated, largely non-violent protests into a pan-Delta insurgency. Approaching the issue from a number of perspectives, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of the varied dimensions of the conflict. Combining empirically-based and analytic chapters, it attempts to explain the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors, levels and dynamics involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace. It also examines the role of oil as a commodity of global strategic significance, addressing the relationship between oil, energy security and development in the Niger Delta.