I recently watched a web Q&A session on Nigeria that was hosted by Shell. While it was not one of the most thrilling ways to spend an hour and a half, it was instructive to watch a major oil company trying to deal more or less forthrightly with its role as the largest oil operator in what is arguably the planet’s most troubled petro-state.

Representing Shell were six executives, including two Nigerians. On the other side were 445 registered participants—ranging from NGO representatives to concerned citizens, some of whom were Nigerian—and they were asking tough questions.

The overall…

These days, the only information I get about hip-hop comes from foreign policy bloggers. This week I have learned a lot, thanks to a lengthy and very clever blog post by Marc Lynch (a.k.a. Abu Aardvark) which applies international relations theory to the hegemonic position held by Jay-Z in the rap world. Lynch’s post has elicited a flurry of commentary from the blogosphere as policy wonks everywhere seize the opportunity to cast themselves as with-it hipsters and to expose their blogs to people Googling phrases like “takin shots at Jigga.” Neither of which I would ever do.

Much of the commentary about Iraq’s recent auction of oil licenses has portrayed it as a disaster, a shambles, or a crushing blow to Iraq’s plans to revive its oil sector.

Not so fast. Most of what the license round told us about future of the Iraqi oil industry was actually positive.