Browsing by Author "Pegg, Scott"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
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    Avoiding the Dutch disease: Political settlement and institutional development in Kenya
    (2019-12) Nagila, Humphrey Bwire; Pegg, Scott; Dusso, Aaron; McCormick, John
    Petroleum is undoubtedly one of the most valuable commodities in the world with an annual production worth billions of dollars, and an attempt to relate it to the slow economic performance of a country may seem far-fetched. Studies on sub-Saharan countries that produce oil have often viewed the country’s ability to govern oil from an institutionalist lens. This Thesis aims to explore the governance and management of oil resources in African states since this is the focal point between the oil-rich countries and the international community. By using a political settlement framework, I seek to further the “resource curse” discourse by challenging the new institutionalist theory which fails to adequately address the Dutch disease problem. I compare the political settlement between Ghana and Kenya and explore the dynamics of power and politics and how this relationship shapes the functionality of institutions. My analysis of the current political settlement in Kenya that is dynamic in nature, suggests that acceptable levels of elite commitment and bureaucratic capability are unlikely to be reached hence making Kenya prone to the Dutch Disease.
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    Back on track? Somaliland after its 2017 presidential election
    (Oxford, 2018) Pegg, Scott; Walls, Michael; Political Science, School of Liberal Arts
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    Book Review: When There Was No Aid: War and Peace in Somaliland
    (Sage, 2021) Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal Arts
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    Evaluating the criteria for successful elections in post-conflict countries : a case study including Iraq, Sierra Leone, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
    (2014) Dutton, Laura A.; Pegg, Scott; McCormick, John, 1954-; Dusso, Aaron
    Previous research on post-conflict elections has found several criteria important in determining if an area is ready to hold elections and whether or not it is likely to succeed. Although rarely ranked in any determination of importance, several concepts are present in most post-conflict election research. Additionally, there is not an agreed set of standard criteria upon which success can be assumed. When researching the post-conflict election literature two questions arise: (1) is there a set of criteria established to determine if an area is ready to conduct post-conflict elections, and (2) do all criteria need to be present in order to ensure successful post-conflict elections? Most research agrees on common criteria but highlights or researches one dominant criterion, to which is then often attributed to the success of an election. This is found in Krishna Kumar’s focus on international assistance (Kumar, 1998), Staffan Lindberg’s attribution of success to repetition of the election process (Lindberg, 2006), Paul Collier’s focus on per capita income (Collier, 2009), and Marie-Soleil Frere’s research on post-conflict elections and the media (Frere, 2011). When reviewing multiple research sources, it is likely several factors at various times and in various elections will be credited with being the single source criterion for success. This kind of past research is well supported and conclusively argued, but still fails to provide a scope of understanding outside of a single event. In other words, it is case specific and not comparatively applicable across cases. Although this thesis does not intend to “McDonaldize” (Ritzer, 2009) the process of democratization, it does propose to define a common set of criteria necessary, even if in varying degrees, to conduct successful elections in post-conflict environments.
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    Minerals are a shared inheritance: Accounting for the resource curse
    (Elsevier, 2020-11-01) Basu, Rahul; Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal Arts
    Many countries badly mismanage their natural resource endowments. We argue that a fundamental change in paradigm is needed. Specifically, we advocate treating non-renewable natural resources as a finite shared inheritance asset, and extraction as the sale of the inherited wealth. We identify several proposals that logically derive from treating mineral sale proceeds as intergenerational wealth rather than as revenues that can be spent. Wealth portfolio management suggests that mineral owners must strive for zero-loss when selling minerals, establish a passively invested future generations fund from the proceeds and distribute dividends from that fund to citizens as the rightful owners of the shared inheritance. The current dominant metaphor of proceeds from the exploitation of non-renewable mineral resources as being “windfall revenues” is underpinned by government accounting standards. The “windfall revenue” metaphor is not only inaccurate but also produces several pernicious effects that help explain the poor management of natural resource endowments in so many countries. We do not anticipate that our ideas will quickly overturn centuries of established practice. We do, however, believe that the case needs to be made.
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    NATO, Russia and the Ukraine Crisis
    (2016-10) Frix, Noëlie; Pegg, Scott
    This paper seeks to answer the theoretical question: Do international organizations (IOs) bring peace and stability to international relations? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) serves as a case study which can help answer this query. Initially, it is important to explore what realist and liberal scholars broadly argue on the matter of IOs, peace and stability. NATO as an organization is then examined, followed by the case study of the role it played in the Ukraine crisis. Many international organizations exist today which deal with a wide variety of issues. The League of Nations, though it failed to fulfill its mandate of maintaining worldwide peace, can be considered the first modern international organization and served as the model for its successor, the United Nations. Realists—who argue that states are the principal actor in international relations (IR) and that they are self-interested and mainly concerned with security and power—look upon IOs skeptically. Liberals, though, believe in cooperation among states and promote the proliferation of international organizations, extolling their virtues. The heated debate between these two ideologies is evident in the case of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) eastward expansion. NATO was originally designed to curb the Soviet threat and protect Western Europe from communist expansion. When the Cold War ended and NATO’s original mandate had therefore expired, liberals championed the continued existence and expansion of the organization. Realists, on the other hand, warned of negative repercussions, as they foresaw that eastward expansion of the alliance would be perceived as a threat by Russia. The 2014 Ukraine crisis provides a good case study which can help determine whether liberals or realists were right. Liberals have claimed that Russian aggression in the region justifies NATO expansion. Realists, however, have argued that it is the very fact of actual and prospective NATO expansion which has caused this aggression in the first place.
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    POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA: SOURCES OF SENEGAL’S SUCCESS
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2011-04-08) Smiddy, Hanna; Pegg, Scott
    Senegal remains the only Francophone nation in Africa to have avoided a military intervention or a successful coup. The former French colony, previously merged with the French Sudan, was granted their independence in 1960. Senegal has continued to develop steadily as a nation by reducing its dependence on France and becoming increasingly democratized. In 2010, Freedom House gave Senegal a rating of three for both political rights and civil liberties, giving the nation a status of “partly free” (Freedom House, 2010). Senegal is one of over a dozen nations on the continent with this Freedom House status. The state has been associated with both Ghana and Tanzania as nations whose liberalization is on a gradual path of progress in comparison to nations such as South Africa or Mali whose liberalization pace is much faster (Clark, 2007). The nation’s development is continuing to improve, but as demonstrated by Cote d’Ivoire, there is still the risk of succumbing to political regression. Senegal’s success has no single point of origin. Plausible explanatory variables include government effectiveness, freedom of expression in the media, and, more recently, support of opposition parties. The dynamics of their liberation and the rapport between the state and their former colonizer form the foundation of Senegal’s move towards democracy. This study consists of a comprehensive determination of the sources of the nation’s political success based on an examination of existing literature on Senegal’s political development.
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    Razed, repressed and bought off: The demobilization of the Ogoni protest campaign in the Niger Delta
    (2015-12) Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Pegg, Scott; Department of Political Science, School of Liberal Arts
    This study examines the demobilization of the Ogoni protest campaign in the oil producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the mid-1990s. The contentious politics literature suggest that protest campaigns demobilize as a consequence of the polarization between radical and moderate protesters. In this study, we offer a different causal mechanism and argue that protest campaigns can demobilize before such indiscriminate repression. Moreover, states can prevent the subsequent radicalization of a protest campaign followed by harsh repression by coopting the radicals and the remaining moderate elites while continuing to use repression to prevent collective action. Our conclusion assesses how relations between extractive industry firms and their local host communities have or have not changed in the twenty years since the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.
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    Socially distanced school-based nutrition program under COVID 19 in the rural Niger Delta
    (Elsevier, 2020) Francis, Nabie Nubari; Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal Arts
    The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is widely recognized as a complex and contentious space for oil exploration and production. Over the past few decades, the Niger Delta has witnessed large-scale mass peaceful mobilizations and rebellion-like conditions from violent militia groups. Oil companies have been implicated in violence perpetrated by Nigerian security forces. Local host communities have suffered greatly from corruption, political instability, violence and the environmental devastation of their farmlands and fishing grounds. Oil companies have increasingly turned to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to attempt to build or repair relations with oil-producing communities. There are also governmental and non-governmental humanitarian actors supporting various initiatives in the oil-producing areas. This article highlights the challenges that one long running micro-scale development project has faced due to the COVID 19 disease outbreak and the closure of all schools in Rivers State, Nigeria in March 2020. The school closures have halted some initiatives, but our weekly nutritional program has continued in new, socially distanced forms.
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    The Strait Defense: A Case Study Comparison of Global Straits
    (2016) Endicott, Travis Wayne; Pegg, Scott; Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Friesen, Amanda Jo
    The global climate is creating more ice-free waters in the Arctic. These new navigation possibilities around the Arctic lead to increased global trade, tourism, and oil and gas exploration. With the foreseeable increased nautical transportation through the Northwest Passage, the United States needs to revisit its security posture in and around the Bering Strait. At least five different grand strategies are potentially relevant in addressing this question. By comparing the suggestions of these leading grand strategy approaches to what has actually been implemented by the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Malacca, and the Panama Canal, similarities emerge that can help the United States shape their strategy for the defending of its national interests in the Bering Strait. By testing the different grand strategies against three reasonably similar cases, I find that a forward military presence and supporting a liberal institutionalist approach are the two key aspects that the United States should employ in the Bering Strait. Increasing and improving the military presence that the United States has in the region should be a top priority. In addition, supporting the Arctic Council would provide an increased level of security to the United States and other nations in the region. This strategy is not without its challenges and it will require artful statecraft in order to be successful.