International Relations 241 - Global Resource Politics

An intensive examination of the international politics surrounding disputes over the ownership, extraction, and vital natural resources including fresh water, petroleum, arable land, timber, minerals, and oceanic fisheries. The course will assess the growing pressures being brought to bear on the world's resource base, including population growth, globalization, unsustainable consumption, and climate change. It will also examine the various ways (war, adjudication, conservation, innovation) in which various actors (states, regional and international organizations, multinational corporations, warlords, civil society groups, and so on) are responding to contemporary resource disputes.