Kleptocracy and Corruption in Rentier States: Free Online Seminar Spring 2022

February 4, 2022

Hosted on Zoom – Register for link

March 2 – May 4, 2022

Wednesdays

10:00am – 11:30am Eastern Time

Description:

Nation states rich in natural resources and governed by authoritarian regimes are all too frequently rife with corruption. A substantial portion of the literature in the field of political economy argues that economic and fiscal reliance on natural resources helps create and institutionalize kleptocratic political systems. In this seminar, we will examine how resource abundance, especially high dependence on oil income, has a detrimental effect on democracy. Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan will serve as case studies.

This seminar will focus on corruption and kleptocracy in rentier states – states which derive all or a substantial portion of revenue by renting resources to foreign powers. We will outline the various complex and interrelated aspects of natural resource governance, including rentier effects, the centralization of power and wealth, “state capture”, “resource curse”, and “Dutch disease”.

This seminar will explore the major effects of the rentier economy and natural resources on democracy and state building, as well as the role of reform in the prevention of the “resource curse”. During the seminar, participants will analyze corruption and kleptocracy as outcomes of poor governance of natural resources and rentier economies, discuss the concept of “resource nationalism”, and use case studies to analyze the effect of “oil booms” on governance.

More Information:

Participants who attend at least 8 complete seminar sessions will receive a certificate of satisfactory completion from the Dean of The New School for Social Research. In order to obtain the certificate, participants must register and log in with the same email address each week.

Registration will remain open for the duration of the seminar. Registrants will receive a reminder email with the Zoom link each week.

The seminar sessions will be recorded and available to registrants on Vimeo the following week.

Seminar Leaders:

**Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu**

Gubad Ibadoghlu is a political economist from Azerbaijan. His career began at the Economic Research Center since 1999. He is senior policy analyst for social and economic studies at Azerbaijan’s Economic Research Center, a Baku-based NGO that promotes economic development and good governance. Dr. Ibadoghlu was a member of the Steering Committee of the EU Eastern Partnership Program’s Civil Society Forum (CSF), served as a representative of Eurasian’s civil societies, and as a representative to the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for 2013–2019. Before becoming a current Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE, he was an affiliated postdoc fellow in the Rutgers’ Centre for European Studies. He taught four courses (International Political Economy, Globalization, Democracy and Contemporary Capitalism, Economics of Transition, Economics of Natural Resources for Sustainable Development) in the Department of Political Science and Economics at Rutgers University during the 2018-2021 academic years.

**Dr. Leila Alieva**

Leila Alieva is an affiliate of the Russian and East European Studies at the Oxford School for Global and Area Studies and a tutor at the Oxford University Department for Continued Education. Prior to that she was a member of the Senior Common Room of the St. Antony’s College of the University of Oxford and the Academic Visitor. Dr. Alieva’s research focus is on the political economy of oil, conflicts, democracy building and energy security. She has also been a consultant to EBRD and oil companies. Previously, she was a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University and UC Berkeley. She was a fellow at the following institutions: Woodrow Wilson Center (Kennan Institute), NATO defense college (Rome), National Endowment for Democracy (Wash. DC), Paul Nitze School for International Studies (Johns Hopkins University). Most recently, she was awarded a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship at the Robert Bosch Academy.

Weekly Sessions:

March 2, 2022: Political Economy of Rentier States
March 9, 2022: Political Effects of Natural Resources
March 16, 2022: Political Economy of Kleptocracy
March 23, 2022: Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries
March 30, 2022: Reforms and the “Resource Curse”
April 6, 2022: Rentier States, a Resource Curse, Corruption and Conflicts
April 13, 2022: Democracy and Political Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries
April 20, 2022: Rentier State, Corruption and Implications for Opposition
April 27, 2022: Illicit Financial Flow (IFF) and Money Laundering in Rentier States
May 4, 2022: Resource Nationalism, EU Interests and Integration of a Rentier State