The Foreign Service Journal, December 2003

any of the world’s poorest countries possess significant reserves of oil and other natural resources. Yet numerous academic studies show that, controlling for income level, countries that are highly dependent on revenues from oil and other minerals score lower on the U.N. Human Development Index, exhibit greater corruption, have a greater probability of conflict in any five-year period, have larger shares of their population in pover- ty, devote a greater share of government spending to military spending, and are more authoritarian than those with more diverse sources of wealth. 54 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 3 F O C U S O N W O R L D E N E R G Y M L IFTING THE N ATURAL R ESOURCE C URSE Josh Dorman I NCREASING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY WILL HELP DEVELOPING NATIONS USE THEIR NATURAL RESOURCES TO FOSTER ECONOMIC GROWTH . B Y T HOMAS I. P ALLEY