Unconventional oil & gas as a case study for a new framework on strategic natural resource development
Publication Date
July 26, 2025
Creator
Abstract
In this dissertation, I introduce a new framework for analyzing strategic natural resource development for use across countries, resource bases, and technologies. This new framework, the “Strategic Resource Development Framework” (SRDF) builds on the Varieties of Capitalism framework by Peter Hall and David Soskice (2001), which analyzes comparative advantages across political economies. The SRDF provides a method for inferring how strategic resource development might unfold in Liberal Market Economies (LMEs), Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), and Mixed Market Economies (MME).
Through my literature review, I show there are three primary drivers for nations to pursue strategic resource development, which are: 1) energy security, 2) economic interests, and 3) environmental considerations. I incorporate these three primary drivers into the SRDF as the reasoning behind national strategic resource development. Through secondary research, I draw on the works of Ikenberry (1986, 1988), Keohane (1978, 1984), Tugwell (1988), Katzenstein (1977), and Hughes (2014) as it relates to national-level comparative analysis energy policy research stemming from the 1970s energy crises, which explores how countries with different market structures have responded to past energy challenges.
With resource development deemed nationally strategically important, I then build on Wang and Krupnick’s (2013) work “A Retrospective Review of Shale Gas Development in the United States”, by accessing four key Independent Variables, which are: 1) Political Opportunity Structure (POS), 2) Government, 3) Capital Markets & Market Structure, and 4) Geology & Infrastructure. Notably, I include Political Opportunity Structure in the SRDF versus Wang and Krupnick’s earlier research, which explores the other Independent Variables.
My research analyzes unconventional oil and gas as a case study for strategic resource development utilizing the SRDF approach. As a result, this dissertation shows how the SRDF affirms Hall and Soskice’s argument that LMEs have a comparative advantage for radical innovation. However, this dissertation also shows that the incorporation of POS in the SRDF can negate the very same comparative advantage that LMEs have for radical innovation.
Through primary research, I show that the polycentric governance nature of LMEs provides POS access points for opposition groups to slow or stop development in the event a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework is not in place. Interviews with various stakeholders from the U.K. and New York, which have both experienced unconventional development bans, illustrate the importance of POS as an Independent Variable for LMEs in the SRDF. These experiences are juxtaposed to other states, where regulatory frameworks were enacted early, and Argentina, where opposition groups struggle to access the POS in the MME country.
The SRDF provides a tool to analyze and infer the potential outcomes for strategic resource development across political economies and market structures. It is my hope future policy makers will incorporate the SRDF approach for the advancement of sustainable development, economic prosperity, and energy security, and that future researchers utilize and optimize it for the specificities spanning countries, resources, and technologies, to better understand and infer strategic resource development outcomes.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Politics and International Relations
eprints ID
80097
UoN Repository URI
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Name
Z. Sadow - PhD Dissertation - Final - October 2024.pdf
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Full-text
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Examined
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3.71 MB
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