Description
Book SynopsisThe real story of global oil over the past twenty-five years is not about the spillover effects of Palestinians fighting Israelis, or terrorist attacks on U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, or Iraq''s stormy relationship with Kuwait. It is not even about periodic small- and large-scale U.S. attacks on Iraq. Rather, the real story is about longer-term developments that have changed the international relations of the Middle East, politics at the global level, and world oil markets. These developments have increased oil stability.from the Introduction
Thirty years after OAPEC shattered world markets for oil, the Western world remains profoundly dependent on foreign, particularly Middle Eastern, sources of petroleum. U.S. political rhetoric is suffused with claims about the vulnerability caused by this dependence. Hence, many political analysts assume that a search for stability of petroleum supplies is an important element of contemporary American foreign policy.
Steve
Trade Review
Crude Awakenings is smart, practical, and convincing.... Yetiv argues that while trade and 'dependency' may put nations into conflict, it also pulls them together.... We must deal with the owners of energy just as people in cities must rely on farmers for food.... In an interdependent world, Mr. Yetiv notes, it is impossible for the U.S. to withdraw from the Mideast. In fact, the real 'nightmare scenario' would be if 'modest acts of terrorism were to drive the United States from the Gulf or to scale back its presence.' The power vacuum would be far more dangerous to us and everyone else than our current level of engagement.
* Wall Street Journal *
Yetiv provides an invaluable guide to the realities that surround the supply of global oil to the world economy. At a time when political analysts and policy makers agree that threats to the global supply of oil have never been greater, Yetiv asserts that such assumptions about oil markets are misleading and wrong.... This fine piece of scholarship clearly enhances understanding of global oil security.
* Choice *
