Douglas Yates

In February Douglas Yates published a chapter on "Oil, Rebel Movements and Armed Conflict in Africa," in Alain Beltrane, ed. Le pétrole et la guerre/Oil and War (Brussels: Peter Laing, 2012) based on a paper presented last year for the Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent and the CNRS.  Yates was interviewed by Bloomberg television on the French presidential elections (Jan. 30 and Feb. 20).  He was also interviewed by France24 television on the visit to Paris by Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara (Jan. 25), the terrorist attacks of Boko Haram in Nigeria (Feb. 7), and Senegal's presidential elections (Feb. 20). He was also interviewed by Radio France International on Ouattara's visit to Paris (Jan. 27), the crisis in the Ivory Coast (Jan. 31), the trial of democracy activists in Gabon (Feb. 3), and President Sarkozy's nuclear energy in France (Feb. 9).  Finally, Professor Yates was invited by the United States Embassy in Paris to meet the new Assistant Undersecretary for African Affairs, William Fitzgerald (Jan. 19).

Dr. Douglas Andrew Yates was born in Hollywood, California. After secondary studies at The Buckley School, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Law and Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara. After working for Finley, Kumble, Wagner law firm in Beverly Hills, he was admitted on a fellowship grant to the department of political science at Boston University, where he received his master’s and doctorate. His dissertation on the political economy of oil in sub-Saharan Africa was published as The Rentier State in Africa: Oil-Rent Dependency and Neo-colonialism in the Republic of Gabon (Trenton/Asmara: Africa World Press, 1996). This work was later used by the Catholic Relief Services to develop its African Extractive Industries Initiative. Yates is a frequent contributor to West Africa magazine, a London-based news weekly covering France’s highly controversial African policy.

Upon moving to France, professor Yates besides AUP, he started teaching in the French university system, eventually becoming integrated as a full-time tenured associate professor of law [maitre de conferences] at the law school of the University of Cergy-Pontoise, where he specializes in civil procedure and the rules of evidence. Yates also joined the faculty of the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy, where he became the research methodology advisor, helping graduate students through their master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.

The Rentier State in Africa: Oil-Rent Dependency and Neo-Colonialism in the Republic of Gabon (Trenton/Asmara: Africa World Press, 1996)

Oil Policy in the Gulf of Guinea: Security & Conflict, Economic Growth, Social Development (Bonn: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2004)

The Historical Dictionary of Gabon, 3rd edition (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 2006).

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