Blood Oil! Professor Leif Wenar's groundbreaking new book

Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Authoritarians like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and the Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades, resource-fueled autocrats and extremists have forced endless crises on the West—and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the gas station and the mall.

The source of the problem is an ancient legal rule that once licensed the slave trade and colonialism, apartheid and genocide: the brutal rule of “might makes right.” The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs—yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords, and terrorists worldwide.

The West can now lead a peaceful global revolution by ending its dependence on the authoritarians who are stealing their countries’ oil, and by getting out of business with the militias who are plundering their countries’ minerals. Doing so will make the world more just and stable, and make other pressing problems like climate change easier to solve.

Professor Leif Wenar will be discussing his groundbreaking new book in which he identifies the causes of global theft of natural resources that underpins so much modern poverty and war. He points the finger at the West and its support for rules of global ownership of resources that cause so much harm – he also offers a clear set of proposals for what must be done to fix this global state of moral harm.

Professor Wenar will be taking take questions and comments from the audience in an interactive conversation about his book. The event will be chaired by Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia, School of Public Policy and Director of the UCL Institute for Human Rights, with comments and reflections by Dr Amanda Greene, UCL Philosopy and Dr Jeff Howard, SPP.

The event is open to all, but to avoid any disappointment, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/blood-oil-tickets-21424119117

This event is co-organized by the UCL Global Governance Institute and the UCL Institute for Human Rights.