Are oil-rich countries prone to war? And, if so, why? There is a widely held belief that contemporary wars are motivated by the desire of great powers like the United States or Russia to control precious oil resources and to ensure energy security. This book argues that the main reason why oil-rich countries are prone to war is because of the character of their society and economy. Sectarian groups compete for access to oil resources and finance their military adventures through smuggling oil, kidnapping oil executives, or blowing up pipelines. Outside intervention only makes things worse. The use of conventional military force as in Iraq can bring neither stability nor security of supply. This book examines the relationship between oil and war in six different regions: Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Russia. Each country has substantial oil reserves, and has a long history of conflict. The contributors assess what part oil plays in causing, aggravating or mitigating war in each region and how this relation has altered with the changing nature of war. It offers a novel conceptual approach bringing together Kaldor's work on 'new wars' and Karl's work on the petro-state.

Contents:
1. Introduction Meghnad Desai and Yahia Said 2. Financial Crises and Global Governance Meghnad Desai
3. Asset Price Bubbles and Monetary Policy Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale 4. The International Monetary Fund: Past and Future Michel Aglietta 5. Regulating Global Finance: rival conceptions of world order Andrew Gamble
6. Crises, Recovery and Reforms in East Asia Jomo K.S. 7. Mexico, Korea and Brazil: three paths to financial crises

The editors of this book have pulled together a collection of chapters that review the spate of financial crises that have occurred in recent years starting with Mexico in 1994 and moving on to more recent crises in Turkey and Argentina. With impressive contributors such as Douglas Gale, Gabriel Palma and Andrew Gamble, the book is a timely and authoritative study. Global Governance and Financial Crises provides a new understanding of this important area with a combination of economic history and political economy as well as the most recent developments in analytical economic theory. Students, researchers and policy makers would do well to read it and learn some important lessons for the future.