"The 'New Scramble for Africa' from a European Perspective: A Crisis of Chain Governance Similar to the 1970s?"
Johannes Knierzinger
Visiting Scholar, 2018-2019, WIGH; Fellow, Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France
The 2000s witnessed an unprecedented boom in raw material production, that allowed elites in capital poor and resource rich countries considerable policy leeway. Political leaders of these countries reviewed their mining contracts, formed alliances, threatened to nationalize assets and – in some cases – invested revenues sustainably in education and social services. Fifty years ago, a wave of independencies of former colonies and reconstruction in Europe sparked a similar resource boom that was highly amplified by the reaction of most OPEC countries to the Yom Kippur War. This seminar will discuss the reactions of highly import-dependent EU industry to these two crises.
The seminar paper is available one week ahead of time by request to jbarnard[at]wcfia.harvard.edu