Fossil Fuel Empire: A World of Vulnerability

“It’s all about the oil,” many commentators said about the US assault on Iraq in 2003. Attributing a war to a single cause is almost always an oversimplification, but protecting access to the 20th century’s most important energy source has been a priority of US foreign policy since World War II.

Peak oil notes – Jan 31

 A midweekly update…Oil prices continued to move higher this week with NY crude closing at $97.94 on Wednesday and London at $114.90. Optimism about the US and Chinese economies coupled with an announcement by the Federal Reserve that it intends to keep buying $85 billion a month worth of securities supported the move.

How it could happen, part four: crossing the line

This fourth part of a five-part series uses the tools of narrative fiction to explore some of the ways in which America’s global empire might come apart. As the multiple impacts of American defeat in the East African War come home to roost, a leadership vacuum made worse by partisan gridlock pushes the United States deeper into crisis — and efforts by the political establishment to evade that crisis without dealing with America’s systemic problems unleashes a backlash that might bring the American experiment to a sudden close.