Klare foresees African oil fueling global clashes

Author: Annabelle Fowler

Consider, for a moment, farmers in Nigeria who live off the land to support their families. If oil is found underneath their property, they can look forward to nothing but devastation. In no time, a foreign oil company will show up, begin digging holes and start extracting oil from the soil. The land will be destroyed, the water will be poisoned and the chances of compensation will be zero.

Insisted Michael Klare, a Five College's Professor of Peace and World Security Studies in his lecture last Tuesday, his is the situation not only in Nigeria, but in many parts of Africa. It is oil, according to Klare, that spells impending disaster for African nations and the world.

Michael Klare was the keynote speaker for this past week's African Symposium, "Gems and Guns." Speaking without a formulated agenda, Klare addressed a packed Robert A. Jones '59 House with a fiery spontaneity and provided pointed insights into the resource conflict in Africa, with a particular emphasis on oil.

In Africa's past, Klare explained, colonialism equaled plunder. Established governments were systematically smashed, and their political and social structures left disheveled. Colonialists used divide-and-conquer tactics to manipulate the local populations and then drew boundaries to suit European convenience without any regard for ethnic realities. This laid the ground for the weak, corrupt governments that exist in Africa today. Today's separatism is deeply rooted in past colonialism, as well as religious violence, anti-Western ideas and hatred. These problems, Klare insists, only become intensified when oil is added to the equation.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, individuals can own assets which are under the ground. In Africa, on the other hand, the state owns and controls all subterranean assets and therefore all the oil. Thus, explained Klare, only the heads of state collect the rents and the income is rarely redistributed equally or fairly.

"Two hundred and fifty miles away from Darfur, people are driving brand new Mercedes and going to discos where they buy drinks at New York City pricesÖ 250 miles from Darfur," said Klare.

The oil in Africa can easily become a source of friction in the global struggle for energy. "Just as Africa is becoming the most important source of oil for the USA, Africa is [also] becoming the most important source of oil for China," said Klare. Africa's appeal lies in the fact that it is at an earlier stage of development of oil extraction than other countries. And when it comes to oil production. Africa is on an exponential curve while the rest of the world is on the decline. Whereas petroleum companies already own most of the oil sites in other parts of the world, in Africa the situation is different. "[It] is virtually the only place left in the world that is willing to bring in foreign partners," Klare explained.

As the U.S. and China look to exploit Africa's resources, Klare sees only conflict on the horizon. He envisions a China-United States clash occurring in Africa, and warns that if both nations engage in competition, the outcome could well be World War III or another Cold War, complete with proxy battles and bipolarity.

While his outlook is bleak, Klare pinpointed some potential solutions to resource exploitation in Africa. "We must recognize that the U.S. needs to be a leader in the search for alternative energies and exercise a professional, non-intrusive decorum when it comes to Africa," he explained. This could come about through a tax on gas that would subsidize alternative energy research and a heightened consciousness of such issues.

Like Klare, Toral Patel '09, an organizer of the symposium, is also aware that "a small symposium cannot possibly produce solutions for such deeply-rooted problems. But by simply creating discourse, the issues are brought to people's attention which is important in and of itself."

Wendy Rodriguez '10 agrees. "The symposium is a very good idea because it brings awareness to issues that are not always very evident in the media today," she said.

Indeed, Patel said that one of the main goals of the symposium was to bring the issues into the campus consciousness by sparking dialogue about issues within Africa and elsewhere. "We felt that it was important to understand how [resources] have contributed to or hindered the region's development efforts."

Ultimately, then, the symposium leads to reflection not only on resource wars in Africa and problems in the developing world, but also on our own lifestyle and oil consumption. If we want to help Africa, we must attack the problem at its root and, as Klare made clear, cut down on our consumption of oil while we try to find alternative energy sources. Otherwise, he warned, while striking the podium in front of him, we might as well "kiss the planet goodbye."

Klare is the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum and Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. The event was sponsored by Dialogues for Peace, International Students Organization, Ross Commons, and the Department of Political Science.