Product Description

Since September 11th 2001 and the commencement of the war on terror', the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between US foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Michael Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter governments. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as demand increases and warns that by 2010 the US will need to import 60 per cent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America and Africa their dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #666051 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
The United States has traditionally had a love affair with the car, but its unquenchable desire for fuel is now a matter of serious concern. Professor Michael Klare has produced a thorough and utterly convincing account of how fears over the supply of oil are now so great that they dictate America's foreign policy to an unhealthy degree. From turning a blind eye to the corruption and brutality of the Saudi Royal family to the planned and dubiously explained invasion of Iraq, oil exists at the heart of Washington's decision-making process. Klare is rigorous in offering the evidence to support his argument and his clear, unaffected style avoids hysteria, yet he's produced a book so powerful you'll certainly think twice the next you fill your car up at the local petrol station. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Michael Klare is the author of Rogue States and Nuclear Outbursts, Low Intensity Warfare and Resource Wars. He is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Superbly researched book that has a stark message for all
In this fantastically well written and researched book, Klare draws on literally thousands of different sources to show how Western governments in general, and the US in particular, have manipulated world politics for the past half century to ensure the life blood of their power never runs dry. He describes the "security strategy" formulated by the American right during their time out of office in the 1990s, how an opportunity to wean the US off fossil fuels was deliberately overlooked when they re-took power this decade, how the idea of domestic self-reliance is a myth and how Iraq could never have been about anything else but oil.

After setting the scene, Klare then shows how Central Asia - most notably the Caspian Sea region - will almost certainly be the next flash point as the US, EU, Russia and China seek alternative supplies to the Persian Gulf, while at the same time producers in the Gulf will quite literally have us over a barrel. It has already started: Oil has reached record prices, while joint exercises with local forces and the establishment of permanent airfields in pro-Western countries has been accompanied with the propping up of decidedly non-democratic regimes and the subtle weakening of troublesome governments, in order to have them replaced by popular revolt. Anyone who has seen the news in the past few months will have seen these prophecies starting to occur in countries such as Kyrgyzstan. Worryingly, Klare foresees a very high chance of all out war: Without predicting who will side with whom, it is clear that on our current path we are destined to come to blows over the last remaining reserves within our lifetimes.

The book comes out with some startling figures. For example, whilst George Bush has pledged $1.2 billion for hydrogen fuel research between 2002 and 2007 - a large sounding number if taken by itself - or the world argues over who will host a $5bn demonstration Fusion reactor that could lead the way to millennia of clean energy, what is not often shown is the cost of the status quo. Klare quotes the R&D and equipment cost alone required to extract more of the difficult-to-find reserves and sustain world demand will be over $3 trillion between now and 2030. This is before we consider the cost of pollution, indirect environmental effects and disasters, propping up of "friendly" oil states worldwide with arms and training (billions of dollars each, even to the small guys) and of course the wars that go along with increasingly scare reserves (Iraq alone having cost hundreds of billions of dollars already). The author ponders where this kind of money is going to come from - but then again this was written before Paul Wolfowitz took up residence at the World Bank.

If any aspect of this book is below first class, it is the section on strategies to turn the world away from the oil economy. There is nothing wrong with the tone of the material, but it feels a bit lightweight after everything else here. Perhaps defining the way out of this mess is neither the author's speciality nor strictly the point of the book, which is understandable given the depth of the cover of other matters. If what you read makes you anxious for more, the subjects are better dealt with in "Beyond Oil" by Kenneth S. Deffeyes, "Tomorrow's Energy" by Peter Hoffman and other books of that ilk, in addition to websites such as www.hfcletter.com and www.h2cars.de.

Nevertheless, this is a superb book; well researched, easy to follow for political novices, delivers the facts without being sensationalist and outlines the consequences of inaction. If I could, I'd make everyone read this to see how badly we have been and are being conned by our leaders. This should be on the bookshelf of anyone who has an interest in world politics or the environment - together with the sources mentioned above, it is clear that not only is there an alternative to the future we are making for ourselves, but the means to do it are all but ready now and by comparison, the costs are not as high as They would like you to believe.

Food for thought when oil hits $100 per barrel.

Energy security is national security
Michael Klare doesn't agree with S. Huntington that contemporary conflicts are rooted in civilization differences. For him, they are struggles for scarce and valuable materials: arable land, water, timber, commodities and, most notably, oil.
Relatively inexpensive petroleum lays at the heart and is the engine of the world economy: the transportation (and indirectly tourism), textile, pharmaceutical and agro-business industries.

Oil is a key factor in national defense; e.g. it secured the Allied victory in World War II.
Control of world oil is essential for 'full spectrum domination' (W. Engdahl) and for preventing the rise of a new rival in world affairs.

Unfortunately, oil is becoming rapidly a scarce product. Nevertheless, the policies of the Bush II administration are based on increased oil consumption and on an expansion of the US oil economy!! More unstable and unfriendly supplies, together with rising competition, will be needed to slake the US thirst of cheap oil.
Actually, the main sources of cheap oil are situated in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian region. The author points his finger at the Iraq invasion: the US forces seized immediately the Oil Ministry in Baghdad, while allowing the looting of everything else in the city.
But, for M. Klare, control of the Persian Gulf and other oil regions (+ transportation and refining) constitutes a formidable challenge and will need vast amounts of money to finance the US military presence in all those regions, and that at a huge moral cost and increasing sacrifice of US blood. In the medium, and certainly in the long, term this policy is unsustainable.

The author proposes different partial solutions for the 'oil problem': a surtax on gasoline consumption, development of mass transport and alternative energy sources, fuel efficiency. In the actual context, these propositions are more or less wishful thinking. A complete change of mind will only arrive when the oil price will reach astronomical heights and when all cheap oil sources will be dried up.

This book contains very valuable historical material about the dawning of the oil industry and the crucial negotiations with oil suppliers.
It is an essential read for all those interested in world affairs.

I also recommend William Engdahl's 'A century of War' and the works of Chalmers Johnson.

must-read
For those of us who keep hearing that oil is behind all the wars invasions and other calamities of our time, but want to know exactly how, this is the perfect book. Goes into the right level of detail, and full of inside info on how oil has corrupted politics. It'll make you switch to cycling.