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Article

1 Jul 2001

Author:
Marina Ottaway, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Co-Director of its Democracy and Rule of Law Project, in Foreign Policy

Reluctant Missionaries

Can't shut down Big Oil? Then browbeat companies like Shell and ExxonMobil into preaching the gospel of human rights and democracy to their developing-world hosts. As appealing as this strategy seems to global do-gooders, it won't work. Not only are oil companies unsuited for the job of turning the world's most difficult neighborhoods into thriving market democracies, they're increasingly adept at passing the buck of reform to others