The African ‘oil rush’ and US national security
The African ‘oil rush’ and US national security
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非洲“石油热”与美国国家安全
DOI：
10.1080/01436590600720835
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发表时间：
2006
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Daniel P. Volman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. Klare;Daniel P. Volman
以美国、中国和西欧国家为首的世界主要石油消费国对非洲石油储量的开发非常感兴趣，对任何可用的勘探区块都进行了巨额投标，并在钻井平台、管道、装载设施和其他生产基础设施方面投入了大量资金。事实上，对非洲石油的追求已呈现出淘金热的特点，世界各地的大公司相互激烈竞争，以获得有前途的储量。这种“石油热”对非洲石油生产国和主要石油进口国都有巨大的影响。对生产国来说，它既有可能带来新的财富，也有可能在石油收入（或“租金”）的分配上引发严重的内部不和;对消费国来说，它意味着越来越依赖从长期不稳定的地区进口一种重要物质，这显然涉及国家安全。这两种趋势都反映在美国对非洲石油的政策上。布什政府迫切希望获得更多的外国石油供应（以弥补国内石油产量的下降），因此一直在努力增加美国能源公司在非洲石油生产中的作用。但由于非洲的不稳定是这种投资的障碍，它寻求提高友好非洲国家的内部安全能力，并为美国直接军事介入非洲奠定了基础。与此同时，华盛顿对中国对非洲石油日益增长的兴趣深感担忧，这引发了两国之间激烈的竞争，其中军事色彩越来越浓。最后，非洲社会很可能会在这场竞争中受损，因为武器的流入增强了非洲根深蒂固的政权的能力。
Abstract The world's major oil-consuming nations, led by the USA, China and the Western European countries, are keenly interested in the development of African oil reserves, making huge bids for whatever exploration blocks become available and investing large sums in drilling platforms, pipelines, loading facilities and other production infrastructure. Indeed, the pursuit of African oil has taken on the character of a gold rush, with major companies from all over the world competing fiercely with one another for access to promising reserves. This ‘oil rush’ has enormous implications both for African oil producers and for the major oil-importing countries. For the producing countries it promises both new-found wealth and a potential for severe internal discord over the allocation of oil revenues (or ‘rents’); for the consuming countries, it entails growing dependence on imports of a vital substance from a region of chronic instability, with obvious national security overtones. Both these trends are reflected in US policy towards African oil. Desperate to procure additional supplies of foreign oil (to make up for the decline in domestic output), the Bush administration has made strenuous efforts to increase the role of US energy firms in African production. But because instability in Africa is an obstacle to such investment, it has sought to boost the internal security capacity of friendly African states and has laid the groundwork for direct US military involvement in Africa. At the same time Washington has become deeply concerned by China's growing interest in African oil, provoking an intense competitive contest between the two, with growing military overtones. In the end African societies will most probably suffer from this competition as an influx of arms bolsters the capacity of entrenched African regimes.