Middle East & North Africa

The manifestations of narcoterrorism are manifold and far reaching: increased drug production; wide spread abuse of drugs; serious drug-related crime; threats to the rule of law, public security, and public health; money laundering; infiltration of the legal economy and financing of terrorism

Over the years, several definitions of “narcoterrorism” have been introduced. The widest definition is given by the Oxford dictionary (1999): “Terrorism associated with the trade in illicit drugs”. It does not indicate whether ideological and political or, criminal and commercial motives are the main driving factors. The simplest way of describing narcoterrorism is, perhaps, as a part of an illegal complex of drugs, violence and power, where the illegal drug trade and the illegal exercise of power have become aggregated in such a way that they threaten democracy and the rule of law.

Policymakers, journalists, and community leaders have reached an impasse in crafting a common understanding of how to describe the link between religion and violent extremism, both from a factual point of view and in terms of what might be effective in undermining the appeal of extremist movements.

Media Coverage:

• 07-Jul-2008 - Logos Institute Blog: Communication Isn’t About Pushing Messages at Audiences
• 07-Jul-2008 - About.com: Towards Greater Understanding

Executive Summary

The last seven years have seen leading Americans falter in their communications about violent extremists and the communities believed to be fostering them. Policymakers, journalists, and community leaders have reached an impasse in crafting a common understanding of how to describe the link between religion and violent extremism, both from a factual point of view and in terms of what might be effective in undermining the appeal of extremist movements. This paper begins at this impasse. It reviews the choices to be made about language and rhetoric in U.S. public discourse as elements of a necessarily broader communications strategy to counter violent extremism. It takes account of how these choices flow through the global media, especially Arabic outlets. It concludes with a call to go beyond debates about the words themselves and to implement a holistic approach to communication that comprehends both the contemporary media environment and the cultural and political landscape of conflict. Communication cannot be composed merely of canny use of media, nor only of a well-crafted message. In the 21^st century media environment, words shape actions, actions beget words, and both are in perpetual, dynamic relationship.

The financial crisis has highlighted the need for such an inclusive governance structure as pump-priming increases the possibility of political friction between energy producers and consumers. Energy markets, unlike financial markets and other goods and services, are more generally characterized by substantial government intervention. The energy sector is dominated by companies that either had or still do have substantial support from national governments. Beyond the formal state-owned sector, private energy companies have always been under scrutiny and or control by government given the importance of providing reliable supplies of ‘essential services’ and energy security to a country’s people and businesses. This aim of governments has meant that domestic energy policy impacts on foreign policy in a number of ways, including escalating fears regarding resource nationalism when oil prices are volatile.

This paper provides an overview of existing research on the outcomes of government ownership and intervention in the energy sector through the example of state-owned oil companies as they compare with their so-called private sector counterparts. The purpose of this analysis is to improve the competitiveness of the energy sector while settling exaggerated fears regarding the negative eff ects of energy nationalism on the security of supply to other countries. This paper builds on work of the EastWest Institute beginning in 2005 on promoting confi dence, trust and cooperation in global energy security.

Other essential characteristics of energy commerce include the regular occurrence of market failure, information asymmetries and potential market manipulation due to the oligopolistic market power of OPEC and in some cases multinational oil companies. High and rising oil prices in the fi rst eight months of 2008 were in part due to infrastructure bottlenecks and short selling by hedge funds. The collapse in oil prices through October 2008 and since may have brought a sharper realization to many of the most powerful oil companies that they would benefi t from a less volatile, more transparent and better regulated market.

State-owned energy companies will become even more important in coming years. According to the International Energy Agency, in the next four decades, developing countries – most with state-owned companies – will be the source of 90 per cent of all new supplies of oil. According to a Rice University study, state-owned companies already control almost 80 per cent of world oil reserves and will dominate the market in the future.

Recommendations

As a result of consistent market failure in the energy sector, there needs to be a global governance structure specifi cally aimed at regulating it to allow for more transparency and competition. This global corporate governance structure would primarily consist of multinational private energy companies and state owned energy companies. It would promote:

• greater transparency in reporting of government-owned enterprises in the energy sector, based perhaps on the adoption of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
• introduction of domestic regulatory regimes in various countries to incorporate the idea of ‘competitive neutrality’ to provide greater competition between the oil majors and the new “seven sisters”
• energy market reform in the big sister state of origin countries to improve competition in domestic markets and allow for a more even ‘playing fi eld’ to underpin new energy diplomacy between oil consuming and oil producing countries
• introduction of global accounting standards for energy companies that have either a controlling stake or a minority stake held by government to decrease cross subsidies between the domestic, often-legislated monopoly and off -shore investment
• a new complaints mechanism (an International Energy Tribunal) to ensure that that all stakeholder interests can be accounted for. This could be constructed along the lines of the anti-dumping provisions in the WTO or anti-trust procedures in terms of anti-competitive detriment.