Publication

This paper reveals that the opaque management of increased oil and gas revenues has sparked pressure for governance reforms from within producer states and has also encouraged new international initiatives linking energy security with good governance. Oil and democracy have never made a good mix, but the new context is widely seen as a key factor loading the dice even more strongly against democracy. Notwithstanding the negative trends associated with international energy markets, ‘the return of oil’ to international geopolitics has also served as a catalyst for more far-reaching debates over democratization and governance reform.