OxTalks will soon be transitioning to Oxford Events (full details are available on the Staff Gateway). A two-week publishing freeze is expected in early Hilary to allow all events to be migrated to the new platform. During this period, you will not be able to submit or edit events on OxTalks. The exact freeze dates will be confirmed as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
The political economy of natural resources is not a new area of study, but the presentation on the Caspian Basin countries is from a less-researched angle. This talk focuses on the characteristics of petro-authoritarianism, factors of strength in despotic governance, and the political effects of rich natural resources in countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The main question is whether the non-transparent management of oil and revenues is paramount to establishing authoritarian governance and the klan regime. I pay specific attention to the mismanagement of oil-gas revenues and anonymous and quasi-fiscal expenditures fuelled by the fire of grand and endemic corruption.
