Abstract

The resource that I am looking at is oil in Iraq. Oil has been mismanaged, especially in Iraq, for decades and may continue to be mismanaged for many more years. Without any help from the United States government, Iraq’s oil could profit the wrong people or fall into the wrong hands.

There have been laws to restrict Iraq after the gulf war in 1991. Many of these laws were put in place to regulate Iraq’s income (which is largely based on oil exportation profits). Even with the regulations, Iraq failed to maintain records, measure the amount of oil they withdraw from the ground, and withheld information from the United Nations.

Many of these laws were put in place to ensure that Saddam Hussein or Iraq did not try to invade another country after Kuwait. The United Nations allowed Saddam to remain in control of Iraq after his defeat in the first gulf war. Many of the laws regulating oil would have helped stopped oil smuggling, and benefited the government, yet the corrupt government Iraqi government did not follow these laws.

The United States have drafted a new set of laws regarding oil which Iraq is still considering at the moment. These laws force Iraq to sell oil to America at a reasonable price, trying to weed out as much corruption and mismanagement as possible. The problem is, with the state that Iraq is in now, even should the government agree to such a proposal, the different groups that are fighting for supremacy in Iraq care little for the government.

My solution is to find a reasonable way to unite the 3 warring groups in Iraq (Sunni Shiite and Kurd) into a peaceful solution, allowing each of them to gain profit from the oil. If this does not work, America will need to find a way to switch to another energy source, removing dependency on Iraq and its oil.