Rising Powers Shrinking Planet

In this thought provoking and timely book, Michael T. Klare describes how energy is reconfiguring the international geo-political landscape, a phenomenon he calls the new international energy order. In this new order, countries can be divided into energy-surplus or energy-deficit nations. Power will be measured by energy reserves, or by the ability to mobilize wealth to purchase these reserves. The US, China, India and Japan are energy-deficit nations.

Oil is a finite resource. Demand is increasing rapidly. If we are at peak oil, supplies will start diminishing. Even without peak oil, demand is expanding much faster than supply. Newly powerful nations, expanding demand, and shrinking resources will inevitably lead to competition and potential conflicts.

In recent history, the US has been the predominant military power on the planet. However, “the possession of potent military arsenals can be upstaged by ownership of mammoth reserves of oil, natural gas, and other sources of primary energy.” Russia, badly damaged by the end of the Cold War, is now an economic powerhouse due to its “colossal energy resources.”

Klare discusses the three areas of the globe where most known deposits of oil can be found, the Caspian Basin, Africa, and the Middle East. In the Caspian Basin “Washington and Beijing continue to make strenuous efforts to gain access to the region’s newly developed oil and natural gas fields, and Russia – though possessing adequate supplies of its own – seeks control over the transportation of much of this energy to market.”

Klare writes “What makes Africa so enticing today is precisely what made it so attractive to foreign predators in previous centuries: a vast abundance of vital raw materials contained in a deeply divided, politically weakened continent, remarkably open to international exploitation.” Bush established the new Africa Command, AFRICOM, because, as he said, “African oil is of strategic national interest to us”.

In the Middle East the Persian Gulf has been regarded as an American lake. Now China, Japan, India, and Russia are all vying for the oil reserves found there.

Nations are forming into proto blocs. There is a danger that “a minor clash over contested energy supplies might trigger an international conflagration.” In addition, “the proto-blocs now forming in Eurasia could, for instance, harden into rigid military alliances and spark a new Cold War.” And there are other perils: “a global expansion of the power of the state (ostensibly in the pursuit of ‘energy security’) to the detriment of democracy; severe economic trauma; and the acceleration of global climate change with its attendant disasters.” There is an obvious need to address the global energy dilemma. Klare recommends establishing formal cooperative relationships, investing and working towards “a new industrial paradigm by supporting cooperative R&D on renewable energy and other resurce-conserving technologies … that posits economic growth while lowering the consumption of energy and other basic materials.” And there are many more potential global partners and collaborations.

Klare writes well. It is easy to read and follow his arguments and narrative. There are also some excellent maps and tables. He makes a compelling and highly readable case.

Nell Marshall

Little Falls Library