DIIS seminar og boglancering: China, Oil, and Political Crises in South Sudan and the Middle East

TID: Fredag den 21. februar kl. 14.00-16.30

STED: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Gammel Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, Reception, 2100 København Ø.

This event is a book launch for The New Kings of Crude: China, India, and the Global Struggle for Oil in Sudan and South Sudan (C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd., 2014) written by DIIS Senior Researcher Luke Patey.

TID: Fredag den 21. februar kl. 14.00-16.30

STED: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Gammel Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, Reception, 2100 København Ø.

This event is a book launch for The New Kings of Crude: China, India, and the Global Struggle for Oil in Sudan and South Sudan (C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd., 2014) written by DIIS Senior Researcher Luke Patey.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner and a major investor in oil and mining industries. The Middle East is a vital source of oil for China’s burgeoning domestic economy. But unfolding political turmoil and conflicts in South Sudan and the Middle East have challenged China’s oil investments and economic interests.

The upheaval has forced Chinese national oil companies to adapt their investment approaches and pushed the Chinese government to the limits of its longstanding foreign policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of foreign countries.

This event will explore China’s evolving approach to political instability in Africa and the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Iran). China’s renewed engagement in both regions offers both opportunities and challenges to development and stability.

THE BOOK

The need for oil in Asia’s new industrial powers, China and India, has grown dramatically. The New Kings of Crude takes the reader from the dusty streets of an African capital to Asia’s glistening corporate towers to provide a first look at how the world’s rising economies established new international oil empires in Sudan, amid one of Africa’s longest-running and deadliest civil wars.

For over a decade, Sudan fuelled the international rise of Chinese and Indian national oil companies. But the political turmoil surrounding the historic division of Africa’s largest country, with the birth of South Sudan, challenged Asia’s oil giants to chart a new course.

Luke Patey weaves together the stories of hardened oilmen, powerful politicians, rebel fighters, and human rights activists to show how the lure of oil brought China and India into Sudan – only later to ensnare both in the messy politics of a divided country.

His book also introduces the reader to the Chinese and Indian oilmen and politicians who were willing to become entangled in an African civil war in the pursuit of the world’s most coveted resource. It offers a portrait of the challenges China and India are increasingly facing as emerging powers in the world.

SPEAKERS

Luke Patey is a senior researcher at DIIS. He has written for The Guardian, the Hindu, and is co-editor of Sudan Looks East: China, India, and the Politics of Asian Alternatives (James Currey, 2011).

Wang Suolao is an associate professor and director of the Center for Middle East Studies in the School of International Studies at Peking University. He is one of China’s leading scholars on China’s foreign relations with the Middle East and North Africa.

A limited number of copies of The New Kings of Crude will be available for purchase at a reduced price of 150 kr. Please remember to bring cash as sales cannot be made with credit card or Dankort.

The book launch will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form no later than Thursday, 20 February 2014 at 12.00 noon.

Read more and register at: http://en.diis.dk/home/seminars/2014/china,+oil,+and+political+crises+in+south+sudan+and+the+middle+east?viapreview=true&viaauth=1233057_d1be502b555245e89dc563c7eeaa6e12

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation.