MPA students at the School of Public Policy had an opportunity to discuss the issue of the resource curse with George Soros recently.
The October 21 session was one in the series of Leadership Labs led by Soros in which he engaged with SPP students to discuss different views and ideas on an array of topics. The session was moderated by SPP Professor Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, a governance specialist on the issues of political economy of development, government transparency and politics in non-democracies.
Soros explained the resource curse through three main perspectives; the theoretical frameworks that he engaged with, and often advanced, his practical experience with a number of organizations, and the analysis of political currents in relation to the resource curse as a problem.
The discussion first put the resource curse problem in the context of theory, examining the assumption of radical fallibility, insolvable problems and the idea of fantastic object: goals that take a different and perhaps not a very rewarding form as we finally reach them. Then the discussion was more concretized with the evaluation of programs such as “Publish what you pay” lead by Global Witness, analyzing its success. Finally he discussed EU policies, responsibility for the wrongdoings of colonialism and some specific country examples such as China and their future role in the resource curse problem.
The presentation was followed by very insightful questions from a number of SPP students. We all left the room concerned, as we extended our knowledge on the complexity of the issue but at the same time are hopeful that more progress will be made in the public sector regarding this issue, and that very likely some of us will take part in making more of that positive change.
By Dragana Marinkovic, MPA Student at SPP