Description
Oil has been a central concern of International Relations. The IR of oil has generally been approached and studied through the traditional tripartite theoretical frameworks - realist, liberal and critical.There has also tended to be a conflation of oil with broader energy security. This paper seeks to challenge these traditional approaches to the study of the IR of oil by taking more central focus on the materiality of oil and how its physical and technological manifestations create new ways of conceptualising the IR of oil. THis paper will draw from the theoretical insights of the 'material turn', drawing in particular from assemblage theory, as well as from post-humanism and complexity theory. The paper will also engage with the extensive research in political geography in the politics and spatiality of oil.
