Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sudanese oil after southern secession

Leben Nelson Moro, assistant professor at the Center for Peace and Development Studies, University of Juba, South Sudan, wrote a policy brief dated March 2011 for the South African Institute of International Affairs titled “Governance of Oil Resources and the Referendum in Southern Sudan” (PDF).

Written from a South Sudan perspective, Moro concludes that:
one fundamental lesson to be learned from Sudan’s ineffective management of its oil resources is perhaps that leaders of countries endowed with valuable resources should work hard to reconcile varying, and often conflicting, interests in those resources, so as to minimize risks of oil-rich areas turning to violence, even desperate options such as struggles for secession.