The playing field upon which actors, both state and non-state, develop strategies to secure existing supplies of oil and seek access to new ones is as systemically, politically and strategically complex is as it is geographically vast. In considering this activity, the terminology used by pundits and journalists to describe the significance of issues such as oil demand, the complexities of access to petroleum and concerns over security threats to supplies of oil is familiar. Juxtapositions such as the ‘geopolitics of oil', ‘energy geopolitics', the ‘geopolitics of resource wars' and the ‘geopolitics of oil and gas' are all familiar. But what do they mean when they use ‘geopolitics' in this context? Thus, by extension, can petroleum geopolitics - a hybrid conceptual construction used in this thesis - be disassembled into its component parts, analysed and systematically understood. This is the aim of this thesis. This thesis contends that the very nature of oil and gas reserves, the processes of exploration and production, and the means that govern and characterise the transportation of petroleum overland and by sea is inherently geopolitical - that some core features of geopolitical theory and key geopolitical concepts are pivotal in determining the ontology and process of the international oil business. Indeed, so central has oil been to the advancement of industrial capacity, technology, warfare, transportation and economic prosperity of states since the 20th century, it could be argued that petroleum is the single largest determinant of the geopolitics that characterises the modern international system. In order to address the interrelationship and correlations between core aspects of the petroleum industry and causal geopolitical phenomena, I begin by advancing a framework of analysis that systematically binds key geopolitical features and concepts – specifically: Spatial Phenomena; Environmental Ontology; Territorial Access; Geopolitical Features; State and Non-state Concepts; and, Strategic Resources and Geopolitics - with examples of empirical findings revealed in subsequent chapters in the thesis. Fundamentally, this process works to assess causality and correlations between geopolitical phenomena such as space and distance, sovereignty, territory, boundaries, chokepoints, resource nationalism, transnationalism, resource security and conflict, and the features and processes inherent in petroleum reserves and the exploration, production and transportation of oil and gas. The framework is followed with a sequential analysis of the three empirical foci of the project: the ontology of oil and natural gas reserves; the planning and processes of exploration and production; and, the processes of the conveyance petroleum. I have concentrated my research to activities within Eurasia, which comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, and the Indo-Pacific maritime realm, which extends eastwards from the Red Sea to the western Pacific Rim. After systematically assessing the empirical findings and examining key areas of geopolitical theory, I conclude that there is an identifiable and logical correlation between geopolitical phenomena, petroleum reserves, and the means to produce and distribute oil and gas between source and market.

As regiões metropolitanas são o local onde se pode observar com mais clareza as grandes dicotomias presentes na sociedade brasileira. Riqueza e pobreza, qualidade de vida e falta de oportunidades. Nesse sentido, alguns dos maus resultados em matéria de políticas públicas podem ser associados a problemas em sua implementação. Diante deste contexto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a forma com a qual a legislação relativa à implementação de políticas públicas de transporte coletivo na Região Metropolitana de Curitiba lida com os dilemas de ação coletiva. Essa análise perpassa as relações intergovernamentais entre os municípios componentes da Região Metropolitana de Curitiba e o Estado do Paraná, responsáveis pela implementação de políticas de transporte público coletivo. A dificuldade em lidar com os dilemas de ação coletiva, intrínseca à implementação de políticas, ao federalismo, à conformação das regiões metropolitanas e até mesmo ao fornecimento de sistemas de transporte público coletivo é o pressuposto que fundamenta a presente pesquisa. Para proceder àquela análise, a abordagem utilizada foi a qualitativa, de objetivos exploratórios e descritivos. Os meios pelos quais se busca respostas a tais objetivos foram as pesquisas de tipo bibliográfico e documental. Neste último aspecto, procedeu-se à análise de conteúdo dos documentos coletados, consubstanciados na legislação que normatiza a implementação de políticas públicas de transporte coletivo na Região Metropolitana de Curitiba. Essa análise buscou identificar a presença ou ausência de determinados conceitos relativos à coordenação e cooperação para a implementação de políticas públicas em contextos interativos. Como resultados, tem-se que: a) apesar de o legislador reconhecer a necessidade de que haja cooperação em matéria de políticas públicas, inexiste modelo para tanto; b) houve três distintas fases em matéria de cooperação: imposição de normas por parte da União, extrema descentralização e, a atual, com o aparecimento de modelos para a ação coletiva; c) os modelos atuais passam pela possibilidade de estabelecimento de consórcios públicos e pela governança interfederativa nas áreas metropolitanas. Enfim, concluiu-se que as normas que regem o cenário da implementação de políticas públicas de transporte na RMC são, ao mesmo tempo, problemas e obstáculos às esperadas condutas cooperativas, pois, por um lado, estimulam a competição entre os entes e a superioridade hierárquica de uns sobre outros, e, por outro, reconhecem a necessidade da ação coletiva. Ainda assim, por mais de 20 anos a RMC logrou manter uma rede integrada de transportes ativa, o que sugere a participação ativa dos atores sociais responsáveis por essa política pública. / Metropolitan areas present clearly the greatest dichotomies in Brazilian society. Wealth and poverty, quality of life and lack of opportunities. In this sense, some of the bad results in terms of public policies can be associated with problems in its implementation. In this study, the analysis relies in the intergovernmental relations between the municipalities that composes the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba (RMC) and the state of Paraná, all of them responsible for the implementation of public transportation policies. The difficulty in dealing with the dilemmas of collective action, intrinsic to the implementation of policies, federalism, the conformation of metropolitan region itself and even the provision of public transportation systems is the assumption underlying this research. To carry out the analysis, it was used a qualitative approach, with exploratory and descriptive objectives. This research used bibliographic and documentary approach to accomplish its objectives. Regarding to the later approach, the procedure was to analyze the collected documents that included the whole legislation that regulates the implementation of public transport policies in the metropolitan region of Curitiba. The document analysis sought to identify the presence or absence of certain concepts related to coordination and cooperation for the implementation of public policies in interactive contexts. The results led to the following conclusions: a) although the legislators recognize the necessity for cooperation in public policy there are no pattern to follow; b) there have been three distinct phases for cooperation, starting with the imposition of norms by the Union, going through a phase of extreme decentralization and the current one, where seem to appear the first patterns for collective action; c) current pattern seems to be the establishment of public consortia and interfederative governance in metropolitan areas. Conclusions lead to the understanding that the rules governing the implementation of public transport policies in the RMC are at the same time, problems and obstacles to the expected cooperative behavior, because on the one hand, they stimulate competition between the entities and the hierarchical superiority of some over others. On the other hand it recognizes the need for collective action. Even so, for more than 20 years the RMC managed to maintain an integrated network of active transport, which suggests the active participation of the individuals responsible for this policy.