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

在Janet Roitman博士的指导下，来自社会研究新学院的博士生Randi Irwin将进行研究，探索有争议领土的财产利用策略。该研究探讨了延期石油合约的创建和实施，其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，无需立即开采即可产生经济价值。西撒哈拉是一个石油资源丰富的领土争端地区，关于资源开采的辩论为探索各种利益相关者如何利用国际法以对财产和合法性提出基于未来的要求提供了一个切入点。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。这个项目提出的问题是：财产和公民身份是如何以及以何种形式在合同内部和之外配置的？基础设施发展、财产、公民身份和自然资源之间的关系是什么？自1975年以来，摩洛哥和可能成立的阿拉伯撒哈拉民主共和国一直就西撒哈拉的权利问题发生争执。延期合同和划定财产和资源的其他形式也可能提供要求政治合法性和确定在承认主权之前要治理的人口范围的新途径。该研究考虑了财产和公民身份如何在合同内外进行配置，以便为未来的石油开采提供一种特殊的方式，使土地转让合法化，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、英国的撒哈拉石油和天然气年会上以及澳大利亚的撒哈拉石油和天然气办公室进行。本研究将包括：a)采访管理石油合同的波利萨里奥党官员；b)采访撒哈拉议会的民选议员，他们有权批准或拒绝资源的使用方式；c)撒哈拉考古公园之旅；d)采访没有担任官方职务，但涉及这些不同财产配置的撒哈拉人；e)撒哈拉政府和石油办公室的档案研究。该项目将使未来的研究人员和政策制定者了解有争议领土上延期石油合同的影响，这些知识对建立和维持21世纪的能源安全至关重要。这项研究还支持研究生的培训。

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.