Paasha Mahdavi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research on energy governance and political economy has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, Nature Energy, and World Politics, among other journals, and has received media attention from The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Mahdavi earned his M.S. in Statistics and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has held fellowships at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy, the Payne Institute, and the World Economic Forum, and currently serves as Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

• 1. The puzzle of extractive resource nationalization; 2. The theory of political survival through nationalization; 3. Defining and measuring operational nationalization; 4. Why nationalize? Evidence from national oil companies around the world; 5. NOCs, oil revenues, and leadership survival; 6. The dynamics of nationalization in Pahlavi Iran; 7. Conclusion: the implications of nationalization.

'Political survival is essential to rulers. In this thoughtful and far-ranging new book, Paasha Mahdavi shows exactly how rulers use control over energy and mining companies to advance their own political survival – often at the peril of their own people and the planet.' David Victor, University of California, San Diego