[stu]

Blood and Oil is a detailed look at how consumption of oil by the major powers of the world will eventually lead to a series of regional resource wars or worse a conflict between the worlds leading consumers.

Klare starts out by examining the history of the love affair between the United States and the black stuff. Starting with the meeting between FDR and the Saudi Royal family during WWII and leading through events such as the oil crises of the 1970's and the Gulf War up to the present day War on Iraq, Klare details the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia and how oil became part of national security policy.

He then moves on show how the US will be reliant on 60% of its oil from abroad in the year 2010 and how this is likely to lead to conflict with other major nations such as Russia and China. He also examines the geopolitics of the Caspian Sea basin and sights this, along with the Persian Gulf area, as the most likely area for resource related conflict.

He finishes by showing how the Russians and the Chinese are trying to stamp their influence on the area and examines each countries energy needs before moving on to propose a solution to avoid global resource wars.

If you really want to understand the current situation regarding geopolitics in the major oil producing areas of the world then this is the book for you. Klare uses well sourced research and manages to paint a dark picture a future that could very well be defined by numerous energy wars.

RATING = *****

[JLK]

I was unimpressed by Klare's earlier book Resource Wars, but this book was certainly worth the time and money. Klare does a better job than anyone else I have read in explaining the true underlying reasons for the Iraq war, the complicated relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States, and the emerging contest between Russia, China and the US for influence and control of energy sources in the Persian Gulf and in Central Asia.

Klare's conclusions pretty much mirror my own in many ways (of course this had nothing to do with my enjoyment of the book ), although I think he left some things out and his recommendations for the future (Ethanol, Mr. Klare? Come on!) are a little unrealistic. The fact is that there will be no easy solutions for the crisis that will be unfolding in the next few decades. Building more nuclear plants would be a good start, though, and it is too bad that so many of the academic types who are cognizant of the fossil energy picture are biased against it.

The book is agnostic on when Peak Oil will arrive, but makes it clear this will happen in the next few decades. More pressing is the issue of present supply capacity, which is driving much of the US agenda as of late (I'll start a separate thread on this). In short, the US is pressuring producer nations to open up their oilfields to commercial investment in order to increase capacity, which is in the best interest of the US but not necessarily the producers, who might benefit more with a tighter market and higher prices.

[eastbay]

I just finished reading this one and wow, it really hammers home the reason the USA wages war all over the planet which is basically, of course, to ensure that American large truck and SUV owners can continue to waste fuel.

If the average fuel economy (claimed to be about 20 mpg) of the USA's fleet of personal transportation vehices was increased by a very realistic 2.5x the USA wouldn't be nearly as dependant on imported oil, at least for quite a few years, and these wasteful and costly oil wars wouldn't be needed. This could be done through taxes and incentives, much as it is in Europe.

One obvious and very important element skimmed over in Blood and Oil regarding the war for oil issue is the true cost of the USA's imported oil. When one adds up all the hidden costs of the various wars, occupations, assorted military bases and foreign aid to oil-exporting dictators the true cost of each barrel of imported oil is astronomical. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands killed and the destruction of cities and towns so Americans can continue to drive large SUV's.

It is so very sad.

EastBay