Fighting for oil when there is no oil yet

Focaal ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (52) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Behrends
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Sudan ◽  
Future Possibility ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The United Nations

The area around the border of Sudan and Chad, where Darfur lies, has been an unimportant and unknown backwater throughout history. Today, however, Darfur is all over the international press. Everybody knows about the grim war there. There is no oil currently in production in Darfur. However, there is oil in the south of neighboring Chad and in Southern Sudan, and there might be oil in Darfur. This article considers a case of fighting for oil when there is no oil yet. It takes into account the role of local actors doing the fighting, that is, the army, rebels, and militias; national actors such as the Sudanese and Chadian governments; and international actors, such as multinational oil companies, the United States, China, and the United Nations. It explains how oil can have disintegrative consequences even when it is still only a rumor about a future possibility.

Subsistence Emissions and Luxury Emissions

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Shue
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in June 1992 establishes no dates and no dollars. No dates are specified by which emissions are to be reduced by the wealthy states, and no dollars are specified with which the wealthy states will assist the poor states to avoid an environmentally dirty development like our own. The convention is toothless because throughout the negotiations in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee during 1991 to 1992, the United States played the role of dentist: whenever virtually all the other states in the world (with the notable exceptions of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) agreed to convention language with teeth, the United States insisted that the teeth be pulled out. The Clinton administration now faces a strategic question: should the next step aim at a comprehensive treaty covering all greenhouse gases (GHGs) or at a narrower protocol covering only one, or a few, gases, for example, only fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO2)? Richard Stewart and Jonathan Wiener (1992) have argued for moving directly to a comprehensive treaty, while Thomas Drennen (1993) has argued for a more focused beginning. I will suggest that Drennen is essentially correct that we should not try to go straight to a comprehensive treaty, at least not of the kind advocated by Stewart and Wiener. First I would like to develop a framework into which to set issues of equity or justice of the kind introduced by Drennen. It would be easier if we faced only one question about justice, but several questions are not only unavoidable individually but are entangled with one another. In addition, each question can be given not simply alternative answers but answers of different kinds. In spite of this multiplicity of possible answers to the multiplicity of inevitable and interconnected questions, I think we can lay out the issues fairly clearly and establish that commonsense principles converge to a remarkable extent upon what ought to be done, at least for the next decade or so.

scholarly journals Withdrawing Drugs in the U.S. Versus Other Countries

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson Ninan ◽  
Albert I Wertheimer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Drug Products ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Decision Guidance ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The U.S

Since 1979, the United Nations has maintained a list of drugs banned from sale in member countries. Interestingly, there are a number of pharmaceuticals on the market in the USA that have been banned elsewhere and similarly, there are some drug products that have been banned in the United States, but remain on the market in other countries. This report provides a look into the policies for banning drug sales internationally and the role of the United Nations in maintaining the master list for companies and countries to use for local decision guidance.   Type: Commentary

The Role of Public Opinion in United States Policies Toward the United Nations

1957 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-227
Author(s):  
Robert H. Cory
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
United States Foreign Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
High Degree

The development of the United Nations has been, and doubtless will continue to be, dependent to a high degree on the support of its largest contributor and most powerful member, the United States. The place of the UN in United States foreign policy is in some degree dependent on the public opinion process. To the extent that knowledge of the role of public opinion can be increased, the potentialities for the growth of the UN can be more accurately judged. Many current proposals—revisions of the Charter, the establishment of armaments control machinery, the founding of new social and economic programs—need to be evaluated in terms of the political possibilities of obtaining American support. What role will public opinion play in formulating United States policy on issues which are crucial in the strengthening of the UN?

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