Michael T. Klare

Rising Commodity Prices and Extreme Weather Events Threaten Global Stability

If you want to know which way the global wind is blowing (or the sun shining or the coal burning), watch China. That's the news for our energy future and for the future of great-power politics on planet Earth. Washington is already watching -- with anxiety.

As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, we find ourselves at one of those relatively rare moments in history when major power shifts become visible to all.

The era of plentiful oil is drawing to a close, and with it economic peril, rising starvation, growing unrest and environmental disaster.

Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?

Be Careful What You Wish For

Of all the challenges facing President Obama, none is likely to prove as daunting, or important to the future of this nation, as that of energy.

In commenting on the war in the Caucasus, most American analysts have tended to see it as a throwback to the past: as a continuation of a centuries-old blood feud between Russians and Georgians, or, at best, as part of the unfinished business of the Cold War.

As the pain induced by higher oil prices spreads to an ever growing share of the American (and world) population, pundits and politicians have been quick to blame assorted villains--greedy oil companies, heartless commodity speculators and OPEC.

Bildiğiniz dünyanın sonu geliyor. Bu yeni, enerji merkezli dünyada, petrol fiyatları yaşamlarımızı yönetecek ve güç, enerjinin küresel dağıtımını kontrol altında tutanların elinde olacak.

The economic bubble that lifted the stock market to dizzying heights was sustained as much by cheap oil as by cheap (often fraudulent) mortgages. Likewise, the collapse of the bubble was caused as much by costly (often imported) oil as by record defaults on those improvident mortgages.

When our grandchildren and mor

The common wisdom circulating in Washington these days is that the United States is too bogged down in Iraq to consider risky military action against Iran or—God forbid—North Korea.

Because global oil supplies are never likely to be truly abundant again, it would only take one major storm or one major crisis in the Middle East to push crude prices back up near or over $80 a barrel.

Meanwhile, not in Iraq or Iran…

Last month's foiled attack on a Saudi Arabian oil installation demonstrated yet again the world's extreme vulnerability to any check on oil supplies. But what if the Saudi oilfields are running lower on untapped supplies than the kingdom, and the West, have estimated?

The Impending Decline of Saudi Oil Output

From Washington to New Delhi, Caracas to Moscow and Beijing, national leaders and corporate executives are stepping up their efforts to gain control over major sources of oil and natural gas as the global struggle for energy intensifies.

Bush yönetiminin İran'ın askeri gücünü imha etmek konusundaki bariz kararlılığının ardındaki tek sebebin petrol olduğunu iddia etmiyorum; ama İran'ın küresel enerji denklemindeki rolünü dikkate aldıkları kesin.

As the United States gears up for an attack on Iran, one thing is certain: the Bush administration will never mention oil as a reason for going to war.

ABD Senatosu'nun, ANWR'dan petrol çıkarılmasına onay vermesi ülke içinde çok eleştiriliyor. Bu yazının konusu ABD'nin iç meselesi gibi görünse de, ABD'nin dış politikasını büyük ölçüde petrol bağımlılığı belirliyor, dolayısıyla dünyanın geri kalanını da yakından ilgilendiriyor aslında.

There are many ways to view the conflict between the United States and Osama bin Laden's terror network: as a contest between Western liberalism and Eastern fanaticism, as suggested by many pundits in the United States; as a struggle between the defenders and the enemies of authentic Islam, as sugge