Concrete Project Outline?

I think we really need to come up with some tangible plan or ideas of how to proceed with this project.

(1) What will be the topic of the project? It does not suffice to limit our analysis to where China gets its oil from or what its future energy requirements will be.

- we should choose a specific aspect of this very broad topic so that we can better focus our research. Personally, I think there are two good ways we can approach it:

(a) Focus on China's oil policies towards a specific region (Africa, Middle East) and how this changes hitherto maintained balance of power there. Alternatively, what are the positive (greater development aid for the region..etc.) and negative (environmental degradation, propping up undemocratic governments..etc.) implications of China's growing involvement in that particular region.

(b) China's "oil expansion" into the Middle East and its potential consequences in terms of contending security concerns of other major powers there (the U.S. in particular). Can China's growing share on the Middle Eastern oil markets precipitate conflict? Is China speeding up the expansion of its maritime forces in order to better safeguard its oil imports (and, thereby, challenging the post-WWII U.S. hegemony in this area)?

- Let's talk about this. If anyone has a different view on how we should proceed, we can debate it.

(2) What is the outline and who's going to work on which part?

- obviously, without resolving the first point, there is no way of coming up with an outline. However, based on the blog posts made so far and our general interests, I propose the following:

TOPIC: CHINA OIL AFFAIRS: THE SHIFTING BALANCE OF POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

I. Introduction

II. China's Booming Economy: Past Precedents and Future Needs

(a) The Flawed Policy of Self-Reliance
(b) China's Economy Today: Growing Oil Demands, World Markets and Increased Foreign Involvement

III. The Security Framework in the Middle East

(a) The U.S. as a Traditional Provider of Security in the Middle East
(b) China's Increasing Share on the Persian Gulf Oil Market - A Threat to the U.S. Interests and Regional Security?

IV. The Security Framework in North Africa

(a) The Oil Markets in Sudan, Libya and Other Oil-Exporting Countries in the Region
(b) The Role of China: Oil Interests and the Changing Security Situation

V. Is China's Involvement in the Middle East and North Africa a Reason for Concern?

(a) How Is China's Economic Outreach Tied to a Greater Militarization of the Region? Or, Is It?
(b) U.S. Take on China's Increasingly Felt Presence in the Region
- in this paragraph, we could analyze countries like S. Arabia, Kuwait or Bahrain and whether their reliance on the U.S. as a long-lasting security provider comes at odds with China's increasing role as a top client.



V. Conclusion


Please, let me know what do you think. Over the next few days, I am going to read couple of articles on this topic.

Jakub