BLOOD BARRELS

The world is far more peaceful today than it was 15 years ago, says Michael L. Ross, a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. There were 17 major civil wars in the late 1980s; by 2006, there were just five. During that period, the number of smaller conflicts also fell, from 33 to 27. Despite this trend, there has been no drop in the number of wars in countries that produce oil, says Ross:

• Today, with violence falling in general, oil-producing states make up a growing fraction of the world's conflict-ridden countries.
• They now host about a third of the world's civil wars, both large and small, up from one-fifth in 1992.
• The main reason is that oil wealth often wreaks havoc on a country's economy and politics, makes it easier for insurgents to fund their rebellions, and aggravates ethnic grievances.

The number of oil-producer-based conflicts is likely to grow in the future as stratospheric prices of crude oil push more countries in the developing world to produce oil and gas, says Ross.

[but let's not develop our own oil reserves]

READ MORE