Myths of the Oil Boom: American National Security in a Global Energy Market

Don't get comfortable with cheap oil, warns international relations professor Yetiv (The Petroleum Triangle: Oil, Globalization, and Terror) in this review of the oil boom and its limitations in securing long-term energy supplies or ameliorating the strategic and environmental consequences of petroleum dependence. He goes over Saudi Arabia's significant but lessening role, the limits of U.S. influence, and why interconnected global energy markets mean that expanded domestic supplies cannot insulate the U.S. from instability or production fluctuations abroad. Yetiv then turns to the downside of petroleum dependence, including military involvement in the Middle East, funding for hostile and undemocratic regimes, and climate change. The author prescribes the "soft power" of energy conservation instead of using the military as the principal means of influencing the Middle East. He also outlines a "synergistic strategy" of "producing more oil while also cutting oil consumption" to move beyond dependence on petroleum. These recommendations seem simplistic and unrealistic, but the balance of this timely book helpfully elucidates the complex issues surrounding global energy economics and security. (Apr.)