Doctoral Dissertation Research: Property Rights Claims and Resource Extraction in Contested Territorial Contexts

在珍妮特·罗特曼博士的指导下，来自新社会研究学院的博士生兰迪·欧文将进行研究，探索有争议地区的财产利用策略。这项研究探索了延期石油合同的创建和执行，这种合同的功能类似于金融衍生品，因为石油储量与许多其他资源不同，能够在不立即开采的情况下产生经济价值。西撒哈拉是领土争端中石油资源丰富的地区，关于开采资源的辩论为探讨各利益攸关方如何利用国际法，以便对财产和合法性提出基于未来的要求提供了切入点。鉴于世界上许多未开发的石油储量存在于有争议的领土空间，这项研究对于理解如何在21世纪实现能源安全至关重要。这个项目的问题是：在合同之内和之外，财产和公民身份是如何以及以什么形式配置的？基础设施发展、财产、公民身份和自然资源之间有什么关系？自1975年以来，摩洛哥和潜在的撒哈拉阿拉伯民主共和国一直就西撒哈拉的权利发生争执。延期合同和其他界定财产和资源的形式也可提供新的方式，以主张政治合法性，并在承认主权之前界定要管理的人口的范围。这项研究考虑了如何在合同内外配置财产和公民身份，以便制定一种特定的方式，使未来石油开采所需的地块转让合法化，并为主权做好准备。这项多地点的实地工作将在阿尔及利亚的撒哈拉难民营、英格兰的撒哈拉石油和天然气年会以及澳大利亚的撒哈拉石油和天然气办公室进行。这项研究将包括：a)约谈管理石油合同的波利萨里奥党官员；b)约谈撒哈拉议会中有权批准或拒绝如何利用资源的民选议员；c)前往撒哈拉考古公园；d)约谈没有担任公职但与这些不同的财产配置有牵连的撒哈拉人；e)在撒哈拉政府和石油办公室进行档案研究。该项目将使未来的研究人员和政策制定者了解争议领土上延迟的石油合同的影响，这些知识对于在21世纪建立和维护能源安全至关重要。这项研究还支持研究生的培养。

Supervised by Dr. Janet Roitman, Randi Irwin, a doctoral student from The New School for Social Research, will conduct research that explores strategies for property utilization in contested territories. The research explores the creation and implementation of deferred oil contracts, which function like financial derivatives since oil reserves, unlike many other resources, are able to generate economic value without its immediate extraction. The debate over resource extraction in the Western Sahara, an oil-rich area in territorial dispute, provides an entry point for exploring how various stakeholders have utilized international law in order to make future-based claims on property and legitimacy. Given that many of the world's untapped oil reserves exist in contested territorial spaces, the research is critical to understanding how energy security can be achieved in the twenty-first century. This project asks: How and in what forms have property and citizenship been configured inside of and beyond the contract? What is the relationship between infrastructure development, property, citizenship, and natural resources? Since 1975, Morocco and the potential Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic have been in a dispute over rights to the Western Sahara. Deferred contracts and other forms of delineating property and resources may also provide new ways to make claims to political legitimacy and define the limits of the population to be governed prior to the recognition of sovereignty. The research considers how property and citizenship might be configured inside of and beyond the contract, in order to produce a particular way of legitimating the transfer of land plots for future oil extraction and prepare for sovereignty. This multi-sited fieldwork will be conducted in the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, at the Saharawi oil and gas annual meeting in England, and the Saharawi Oil and Gas Office in Australia. This research will include: a) interviews with Polisario party officials who manage the oil contracts; b) interviews with elected members of the Saharawi parliament who hold the power to approve or reject how resources are utilized; c) trips to the Saharawi archaeological park; d) interviews with Saharawis who do not hold official positions, but are implicated in these various configurations of property; and e) archival research in the Saharawi government and oil offices. The project would engage future researchers and policymakers with the impact of deferred oil contracts in disputed territories, knowledge which is critical to establishing and maintaining energy security in the twenty-first century. The research also supports the training of a graduate student.