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University of Hawai UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI" LIBRARY PROPHETS VS PROFITS: A GLOBALIST CLASH OF WORLDVIEWS IN ALASKA'S OIL WARS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE MAY 2004 By David M. Standlea Dissertation Committee: Ira Rohter, Chairperson Peter Manicas KateZhou Leslie E. Sponsel Brian Murton ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Drs. Ira Rohter, Peter Manicas, Brian Murton, and Kate Zhou for serving on the doctoral committee for this dissertation at the University ofHawaii. Their valuable insights, contributions, and guidance assisted greatly in the culmination ofthis work. Dr. Leslie E. Sponsel deserves special recognition for outstanding dedication, support, and assistance over the tenure ofthis project. Without his dedication, this work would never have reached fruition. May I thank the Bishop ofAlaska, Mark MacDonald, for his cooperative support and positive review ofthe manuscript. Dr. Barbara Johnston, Director ofthe Center For Political Ecology at the University ofCalifornia Santa Cruz, was kind enough to volunteer her time to read the manuscript and provide helpful suggestions concerning revisions. This research project would not have succeeded without the unqualified and enthusiastic cooperation ofkey informants in Alaska who provided a set ofoutstanding interviews. Alaska State Representative Sharon Cissna, Sara Chapell, Bob Childers, Kim Duke, Richard Fineberg, Scott Fisher, Andrew Keller, Alaska State Representative Beth Kertulla, retired Alaska State Congressman Jay Kertulla, Reverend Karen Lipinczyk, Bishop ofAlaska Mark MacDonald, Sean McGuire, Chanda Meek, Mary Ellen Oman, and Kelly Hill Scanlon made this dissertation possible. Project Underground in Berkeley, California provided an insightful interview. May I thank Evon Peter and the Gwich'in Athabascan ofArctic Village, Alaska, for their invitation to visit their village: without their cooperation, the story would have ll1 been incomplete. The Story ofthe Arctic Refuge is ultimately about Gwich'in courage and fortitude. Finally, my thanks to the Wilderness Society for sending me outstanding environmental scientific published reports on the Arctic Refuge, and to the United States Geological Survey, which provided me with extensive published material involving various geological and biological scientific assessments ofthe Arctic Refuge. IV ABSTRACT The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is but one case or instance illustrative of the coming 21 st Century resource wars. In one sense the Arctic Refuge may be understood as a model precursor to the coming conflicts, pitting a complex array of actors against each other, where fundamental ideas and values-worldviews---collide and polarize. The "local" Arctic Refuge conflict is important for its significance on the global stage, as a blueprint for naming the constellation ofactors in resource wars. Methodologically, the story ofANWR is a basic, fundamental explication ofthe primary participants involved: global corporations, in this case oil; politicians and the state; environmental non-governmental organizations; indigenous peoples and organizations; and human rights/religious organizations. As complex as ANWR may be given the constellation ofactors, it nevertheless provides a fairly clear model ofthe conflicting ideas and values involved, enabling the reader to assess the general problems presented, which carry over to resource conflicts throughout the world. This case is indicative ofa painful paradigm shift taking place within a grand narrative, as alternative, positive visions for the future confront dominant yet outworn values in the American commercial, capitalist culture. American values ofgreed, materialism, egoism, and competition (survival ofthe richest) are being contested on an axiological battleground that will extend into the coming decades. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION . 1 II. BACKGROUND TO BATTLE: THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.......................................... 21 III. THE OIL COMPANIES: LEGACIES OF GLOBAL POWER..... 43 IV. THE CORPORATE STATE............................................ 68 V. THE CULTURE OF CORPORATE SPIN........................... 95 VI. THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS: VISIONS UNDER SIEGE...... 120 VII. THE GWICH'IN: A FIGHT TO THE END......................... 143 VIII. THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY: PHILOSOPHERS OF ANWR.......................................... 170 IX. CONCLUSION.. 188 APPENDIXES A. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES............................. 207 B. METHODOLOGY: CRITICAL NARRATIVE............... 234 BIBLIOGRAPHy..................................................................... 245 VI CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In the coming decades the twenty-fIrst century will increasingly become characterized and understood as a period ofstark and fundamental historic transition. This transition will likely be characterized by escalating and often violent resource conflicts throughout the world, precipitated by an expanding human population guided by an overarching economic growth agenda and worldview proselytized by the current economic and corporate elites primarily centered or originating in the United States of America.! The battle is on for the earth's remaining natural resources, and unprecedented expansion ofhuman population coupled with an American-style propagation ofan unlimited economic "growth paradigm" is forcing a critical historic transition. This epochal change or transition may become portrayed as a descent into ever-expanding violent conflict, chaos, and anarchy fueled by ruthless competition over the Earth's remaining natural resources. It is unlikely that the current state ofaffairs and rate ofgreed and acquisition, especially characterizing American economic consumption, will prevail at this pace without forcing severe environmental and social conflict and chaos. The term "globalization," withstanding its plethora ofinterpretations, defInitions, and approaches, may be understood within the context ofmy argument as a primarily I For solid backgrounds on the ideological agendas ofAmerican corporate global capitalism, see: Manfred Steger, Globalism: The New Market Ideology, (Rowman &Littlefield, 2002); Emmanuel Wallerstein, The End OfThe WorldAs We Know It, (University ofMinnesota, 1999); Noam Chomsky, Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order, (Seven Stories, 1999). I American corporate and economic elitist view ofthe world that perceives the world's remaining resources-especially fossil fuels, and specifically oil and gas-as commodities for the taking by the strongest and the richest. In the worldview of American-led global capitalism, the remaining and rapidly dwindling fossil fuel resources are sources ofhuge profits propelled by rising prices and consumer demand at home. Wealthy elites in the oil industry, in conjunction with their political and military allies and cronies, are scouring the globe to locate, extract and transport dwindling oil and gas resources to their increasing numbers ofdemanding consumers, especially American consumers.2 In this work I argue onthe theoretical level that globalization, for its various interpretations, is fundamentally a twenty-five-year story about the ascendance of business values and practice over the practice ofpublic politics and government, the co- optation or takeover ofdemocratic and representative government by business, financiaL and corporate elites. 3 This is a crucial assumption, that the United States national government is now a corporate state,4 whose increasingly privatized corporate military, funded by the average American taxpayer, is enforcing corporate global strategies to secure the remaining stores ofnatural resources, mostly in the form ofoil and gas. 5 Ifthe invasion and attempted colonization ofIraq is not entirely about the seizure ofup to 225 billion barrels ofpossible oil reserves, then it certainly is a significant part of the strategy, and likely was discussed and planned during Vice-President Dick Cheney's 2 Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape QfGlobal Conflict, (Metropolitan, 2001). 3 John Gray, False Dawn: The Delusions QfGlobal Capitalism, (New press, 1998). 4 In Peter Manicas' The Death OfThe State, New York: Capricorn, 1974, he describes the ascendance of "private governments" in the evolution ofthe liberal state. The rhetoric of"public or civil liberties" is a conceptual smokescreen for the actual pursuit and accumulation ofprivate property and wealth. 5 See Peter W. Singer's Corporate Warriors (Brookings Institute, 2003) for an analysis ofthe new privatized U.S. military, largely supported by large transnational corporations such as Halliburton Brown and Root, and Bechtel. 2 fourteen week energy task force in the spring of2001.6 The foreign policy ofthe neo- conservative oil cOrPOrate Bush administration centers upon the targeting and seizure of oil and gas resources. The U.S. federal government is an oil government, staffed by former (and future, once they leave office) oil company executives and board members. There doesn't appear to be any more crucial subject at this time in history than the nexus oftwo issues: how multinational corporations and big money are buying and influencing politicians and affecting policy decisions--destroying the processes ofgood public governance; and how the energy industry, exemplified by the big oil monopolies, is fighting with all ofits fmancial power to keep the level ofpower and profit
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