John Ghazvinian

This study of American-Iranian interactions from the early eighteenth century to the Trump presidency is most interesting during its early chapters, when John Ghazvinian teases out the evolving relations between first the young republic and the ancient empire, and then the burgeoning world power and the emerging democracy. There's a lot of fascinating cultural history here, particularly about American "Persophilia", that shows many little known connections and roads-not-taken.

However, the closer we get to the present day, the more America and Iran faltered for me. Ghazvinian—an Iranian-born American—is understandably very invested in seeing more normalised, settled relations between the two countries. But this results in him trying to handwave as much as possible in the two countries' respective domestic and foreign policies for the last 50 years or so, often seeking to displace the reason for ongoing U.S.-Iranian hostilities onto Israel. (Which, don't get me wrong, the Netanyahu administration in particular can't be described as good faith actors, but nor are they the only actors here.)

The cultural history also largely drops out in the latter part of the book, replaced by a fairly old-school political history, which focuses on the manoeuverings of upper-level male politicians. There's one anecdote given in passing about Jackie Kennedy, the Empress Farah, and competing tiara sizes, that made me long for a book which looked much more at the history of "soft power" and which actually seemed to care about women.… (plus d'informations)

I really enjoyed this book. Oil is a massive story on every part of the globe but perhaps nowhere is it as relatively important as in Sub-Saharan Africa. The problems of this part of the world have been documented on many fronts. The extraction of oil increasing here the oppurtonity for hope and disaster are escalated. Ghazvinian does a enviable job of showing the diversity that exists across this vast area and myriad problems that have erupted. The mess in the Niger Delta is fairly common news but the vast reserves of Angola and Gabon are less discussed but no less complex and difficult. It is hard to say the exact role that oil has had in destabilizing many of these areas but it certainly has a role. To claim that Nigeria would function significantly better without its oil economy would seem to be a bold statement.

I found Ghazvinian's discussion of "rentier" to be very compelling and enlightening. These countries have degenerated to the point where to call them a sovereign state is questionable. If a government is funded solely by investment in extractive industries and not actually by the collective will of the population can we even distinguish that as entity worthy of statehood? When I told a co-worker that there was speculation that oil was going to start flowing out of his native county, Ethiopia, he responded simply, "That means there will be another war."

However, for all the hardships brought by the manipulation of these countries by the oil comapnies and their own governments, I still feel hopeful for oil to be a player in development. Personally, I feel the only way to achieve permanent economic stability is to develop a system focused on producing something. In the meantime, oil provides an income that if invested wisely can help develop something along these lines. I am not naive enough to even expect 5 percent of the income to used wisely at the moment. However, where was that 5 percent coming from before? I think the ability of a country to begin to wean itself off aid as its primary income is very important. This book was really quite good and I highly recommend it.… (plus d'informations)