Date: 2024-05-14 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00016623
People: Leif Wenar
Corruption / Failed Development
Oppression, Violence, And Corruption: Fighting The Oil Curse
Peter Burgess
On Tuesday, May 7, we will be hosting Leif Wenar (King's College, London) for a talk entitled 'Oppression, Violence, And Corruption: Fighting The Oil Curse' followed by a discussion and a wine and cheese reception. We are excited to host such a distinguished and engaging thinker, and hope you will join us. The talk will be held at 6:30 pm in Skylight Room 9100 of The Graduate Center, and is being co-sponsored by the Social and Political Theory Student Association.
Oppression, Violence, And Corruption: Fighting The Oil Curse
Abstract:
The Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Syria, Russia... for 40 years the West's most serious foreign threats and crises have come from oil states. Oppression, corruption, civil conflict, and refugee flight also curse many oil-rich country. What drives the 'oil curse' is a law left over from the days of the slave trade, that forces us to fund oppressive regimes and armed groups whenever we shop for everyday goods. Only by abolishing the law that makes us finance violence and repression abroad can we hope for a more stable, more just, and more peaceful world.
Leif Wenar holds the Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. He is the author of Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World and Beyond Blood Oil: Philosophy, Policy, and the Future. After graduating from Stanford he went to Harvard to study with John Rawls and Robert Nozick. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford, Princeton, and ANU, and a fellow of the program on Justice and the World Economy at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, and the playbill for the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center.