Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro violence

摘要

Building on over two decades of research on the political economy of oil and conflict in Nigeria's Niger Delta, Cyril Obi, with Sari Aas Rustad, is well placed to bring together fourteen authors all with their own track record in what has become the field of 'Niger Delta studies'. The aim of this edited volume is to explore 'the complex causes and dimensions of petro-violence and insecurity in the Niger Delta'. The book does not claim to provide an overarching theoretical or empirically grounded perspective of the Niger Delta problematic. Dividing it into three parts - the first looking at structural causes of conflict, the second at the internal dynamics of conflict, and the third at the role that multinational corporations have played within it-the editors deliberately seek to create a space for the airing of a 'variety of perspectives' amidst 'the ongoing debates' between those who subscribe to the 'greed and grievance' thesis, and those who 'call for more nuanced, balanced and radical perspectives'.