The Center for Public Integrity was founded by Charles Lewis in 1989, following a successful 11-year career in network television news.

The Center conducts investigative projects that explore the interaction between private interests and government officials, and its effect on public policy. By providing thorough, thoughtful and objective analyses, the Center hopes to serve as an honest broker of information—and to inspire a better-informed citizenry to demand a higher level of accountability from its government and elected leaders. The exponential increase in usage of the Center’s reports by the media, academics, non-governmental organizations and the public at large shows the growing impact of that mission.

The V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation has provided funding for the Center’s "The Politics of Oil" project. One of the most fascinating sidelights of the past decade has been the spate of oil rushes in far-flung corners of the globe, creating a new geography of business in developing nations and in countries that have been seeking to democratize since the end of the Cold War. Oil multinationals are usually bound by corporate governance laws in their home countries, but in the new oil nations, the companies have dealt with dictatorial, undemocratic governments and participated in economic systems where graft and corruption, particularly when it comes to securing oil concessions, is the order of the day. The fallout of that convergence of sudden, vast wealth and unstable regimes, including human rights abuses, governmental corruption and environmental degradation, is what the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) will examine in this year-long project. Intrinsically tied to this is the role that foreign policy plays in "oil diplomacy" and the extent to which the oil companies seek government assistance and try to influence government policy in support of their global operations.

For more information visit: www.publicintegrity.org

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