"THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RESOURCES: CREATING NETWORKS AND LINKAGES"

REGISTRATION

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DESCRIPTION

This working group is convened to respond to heightened global contention over natural resources. From land grabs to oil exploration, our varied relationships with natural resources are at the center of debates over energy, environment and equitable development. Scholars in a variety of social science disciplines address the pressing issues stemming from exploitation of resources, including the “resource curse,” corruption, corporate social responsibility, pipeline politics, food and water security, and climate change. Access to resources, the distribution of their benefits, the costs of resource exploitation, and the impact of technological innovation will continue to shape global and national political debates and move entire economies.

Understanding the international political economy of resources requires an interdisciplinary approach. It also requires us to explore the linkages between global forces and regional and local dynamics. Too often, however, specialists in one issue or sector have little contact with other specialists. Experts on the political economy of oil, for instance, may have little contact with experts on minerals or land. While the international dimension of resource politics garners increasing attention among international relations scholars, the local dynamics of resource contention often are downplayed or ignored. This is beginning to change, however, and this working group is intended to foster development of a research agenda in the international political economy of resources. In this working group, we both expand and narrow the field of IPE to incorporate additional disciplines while focusing on issues related to natural resources. Inherent to this focus are the social, environmental, and security externalities generated by resource development, and the way in which they are governed at global, regional and local levels. The greatest challenges of the coming decades entail new thinking about the collective governance of natural resources.

The working group will take stock of the main theoretical and substantive issues regarding the IPE of resources. What are the implications for global politics of China’s competition for access to resources? How are regions responding to resource issues? What institutional designs are effective in regulating extractive sector corporations? In our discussions, we will focus on the extractive sectors and examine three areas in particular: environmental governance, corporate social responsibility, and comparative regionalism. Participants are expected to attend at least two ISA panels on subjects related to IPE of resources and to bring fresh ideas to the two follow on meetings held during the ISA conference. Through participation in the Working Group sessions and the ISA conference, we will debate the strengths and limits of current approaches in international political economy for understanding the causes and consequences of resource development. We aim to develop the IPE of resources as an interdisciplinary field and to establish an international academic network.

GROUP COORDINATORS

Kathleen J. Hancock, Colorado School of Mines

khancock@mines.edu

KATHLEEN J. HANCOCK is Associate Professor in the Liberal Arts and International Studies Division at the Colorado School of Mines, and Director of the Masters of International Political Economy of Resources program. Her research and publications focus on comparative regionalism, delegation theory, and natural resources. Her research includes detailed case studies on Eurasia and southern Africa.

Virginia Haufler, University of Maryland

vhaufler@umd.edu

VIRGINIA HAUFLER is Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, and Director of the Global Communities undergraduate program. She is an associate of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management and the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda. Her research and publications focus on the governance of global corporations through standard-setting, transnational business regulation, and corporate social responsibility.

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP | 9:30AM - 5:00PM

Room: Yosemite A, Hilton Union Square

9:30am - 10:00am	Welcome and Introductions: Kathleen Hancock and Virginia Haufler Coffee and tea served
10:00 - 11:00am	Keynote Presentation and Discussion: Resource politics linkages: new directions for research and the connections between resource governance issues Speaker and discussion leader: Stacy VanDeveer Drawing on his research for the recently released report “The Global Resource Nexus” for the Transatlantic Academy, and his new book manuscript on global resource politics, VanDeveer will discuss resource governance, the current state of the field, and directions for future research.

STACY D. VANDEVEER is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire and a 2011-2012 Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC. His research interests include international environmental policymaking and its domestic impacts, comparative environmental politics, connections between environmental and security issues, and the global politics of resource commodity markets and consumption. In addition to authoring and co-authoring over fifty articles, book chapters, working papers and reports, he co-edited six books: Comparative Environmental Politics (MIT Press, forthcoming); The Global Environment: Institutions, Law and Policy (CQ Press, 2010); Changing Climates in North American Politics (MIT Press, 2009); Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics (Ashgate, 2009); EU Enlargement and the Environment (Routledge, 2005); and Saving the Seas (1997). Finally, he a is co-author of the recently released Transatlantic Academy report, “The Global Resource Nexus: The Struggles for Land, Energy, Food, Water and Minerals” and he is currently completing a manuscript on “Global Resource Politics.”

11:00 - 11:15am	Break
11:15am - 12:15pm	New Actors on the Frontiers of Environmental Governance: Regions, Firms, and Social Movements Discussion Leader: Juliann Allison

JULIANN EMMONS ALLISON is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside, where she directs the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development. Her research and teaching interests emphasize transnational social movements and community-based social change, especially as it relates to environmental sustainability and international peace.

12:15pm - 1:15pm

Lunch

1:15pm - 2:15pm

From Corporate Social Responsibility to Sustainability in the Extractive Sector: Towards a New Research Agenda Discussion Leaders: Hevina S. Dashwood and Uwafiakun Idemudia Participants will discuss the evolution of corporate social responsibility, and its prospects and limits in promoting sustainability in the extractive sector. What is corporate social responsibility and how has it changed over time? How is corporate social responsibility institutionalized within individual companies, and across entire sectors?

HEVINA S. DASHWOOD is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brock University, Canada. Dashwood’s broad research interests encompass private global governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and international development. Dashwood’s current research program is concerned with CSR adoption in the global mining sector, the dissemination of global standards specific to mining and the translation of global CSR standards at the local level in the developing country context. Her book, The Rise of Global Corporate Social Responsibility: Mining and the Spread of Global Norms, was published in 2012.

UWAFIOKUN IDEMUDIA is Associate Professor of International Development and African Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada., and Director of the African Studies Program at York. Idemudia’s research interests include critical development studies, political economy and political ecology approaches to natural resource extraction, corporate social responsibility and development, issues of governance, transparency and accountability in resource rich African countries. He is also interested in the relationship between natural resources and conflict and environmental security.

2:15pm - 2:30pm

Break

2:30pm - 3:30pm

Resources and Regionalism: Developing Research on Comparative Regionalism and the Extractive Industries Discussion Leaders: Kathleen J. Hancock and Wojtek M. Wolfe Participants will explore the regional dimension of natural resources. How do gas and oil pipelines shape regional politics? What regional strategies are states using to address energy security issues? How can we compare different regions with respect to their resource politics in general?

KATHLEEN J. HANCOCK is Associate Professor at the Colorado School of Mines. (See complete description above).

WOJTEK M. WOLFE is Assistant Professor in Political Science at Rutgers University and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His research interests include International Security, Energy Security, and U.S. – China relations. His current research focuses on how energy plays a role in China’s balancing and strategic hedging behavior.

3:30pm - 3:45pm	Break Coffee and tea served
3:45pm - 5:00pm	Group Discussion Participants engage in small-group brainstorming over the IPE of resources, and how to develop it as an interdisciplinary field. Participants collectively review the list of panels the organizers have identified as relevant and consider which ones to attend. The meeting concludes with a final large group discussion.

FOLLOW-UP SESSIONS

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Room: Golden Gate 3, Hilton Union Square

12:30pm - 1:30pm	Participants will discuss what they have learned from the panels they attended. What new ideas and areas of research have emerged? Who else should be invited to become a part of the network? Participants should bring their own lunches.

Saturday. April 6, 2013

Room: Imperial Suite, Room 3-1984, Hilton Union Square

8:00am - 9:00am	Participants will review what they have taken away from the panels they attended. They will discuss which avenues of research and theorizing look most promising, and propose possible collaborations and further development of this field. Coffee, tea, and water provided.