Academic moots using oil to boost co-operation

Professor Saleem Hassan Ali is researching the role oil and gas pipelines may play in fostering co-operation.

We have all heard about oil and gas being the cause of conflicts around the world and the ‘resource curse’ they bring. How about - for a change - we think of oil as a source of co-operation and mutual development?

The unusual proposal is being pushed by the first-ever visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre, prof Saleem Hassan Ali who during his three-month residency here will be researching the role oil and gas pipelines may play in fostering co-operation between adversaries and the structure of governance needed for such constructive conflict resolution.

“Historically, of course, people have written a lot about how oil leads to conflict; that countries with oil, if they don’t have conflicts, have other issues. My feeling is that that is often a very negative and one-sided view,” said Ali, an associate professor of environmental planning and conflict resolution at the University of Vermont as well as an adjunct at the Brown University, US.

“I think that natural resources, if you have proper governance system, can actually be a source of co-operation and we can use them constructively.”

An example, the Pakistani-American academician gave was that of a couple of visits by the Taliban, of all business delegations, to Texas before 9/11 trying to negotiate a pipeline that was to run from Turkmenistan and Afghanistan down to Pakistan and the Arabian Sea, with the interest of some GCC-based investors as well.

“It was quite remarkable that these two communities that had nothing in common were brought together by the prospect of an oil and gas pipeline,” explained Ali, who earned his master’s from Yale and PhD from MIT.

“Much the same could have been done by bringing Armenia to the table (reference to the Azerbaijan and Turkey pipeline), rather than just circumventing the country.”

Governance, according to Ali, remains the key though, in the absence of which there is a “danger of exploitation.”

There is a problem, he said. A network of pipelines being utilised for co-operation between countries is indeed possible but will only work with state-owned oil and gas companies, as private ones would just “spend $300mn more and circumvent a conflicted zone”.

“Qatar and the GCC have a lot of potential for these kinds of arrangements. Qatar Petroleum is considering or already have stakes in other countries and could think about investing in pipelines as a means of resolving conflicts and also making the issue most efficient in terms of cost,” Ali suggested.

According to the professor, these companies’ incentive should be the greater “economic stake.”

“They should not just do it for philanthropy. They should have a positive economic stake. I just see it as a strategic decision with clear economic benefits, to every one involved. What it does take is leadership; people who are willing to negotiate and make it happen.”