ABSTRACT
This chapter calls into question the environmental determinism ingrained in mainstream IR theories on natural resource conflicts. Based on the epistemological rejection of binary distinctions that separate human and non-human domains, it presents the added value of a political ecology approach to environmental issues. This implies dropping the state- and Western-centric assumptions that abound in the literature on this topic, as along with entering an interdisciplinary dialogue. In line with well-established research, it is argued that conflicts in extractive areas need to be understood within the commodity chain, from local to global. At a theoretical level, the geography shaped by oil production is seen as a relational setting involved in fixing a collective identity in time and space. Exploring the nexus between identity formation and natural resource governance is precisely the original contribution laid down in the book. Given the case at hand, considerable attention is paid to resource nationalism. Besides setting the theoretical framework of the inquiry, the chapter also briefly explains how an interpretive epistemology was translated into a methodological roadmap.
