Geopolitics & Military

Why Washington’s Iran policy could to global disaster

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It’s a policy fierce enough to cause great suffering among Iranians — and possibly in the long run among Americans, too. It might, in the end, even deeply harm the global economy and yet, history tells us, it will fail on its own. Economic war led by Washington (and encouraged by Israel) will not take down the Iranian government or bring it to the bargaining table on its knees ready to surrender its nuclear program. It might, however, lead to actual armed conflict with incalculable consequences.

America: The Gasoline War

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Like all other human activities, warfare depends on energy sources, and the Second World War was the first major war in history in which victory depended on access to petroleum, and in which the possibilities opened up by petroleum-burning internal combustion engines were exploited to the full. It could as well be called the Gasoline War — and its aftermath saw global power transferred to the United States, at that time the world’s largest producer of petroleum. How that happened, and how it impacted an older empire dependent on other resources, is a crucial part of the story this series of posts is trying to explore.

America: The Eagle and the Lion

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Critics of today’s American empire too often seem to believe that it’s something unique in world history. It’s hard to think of better evidence for the pervasive historical illiteracy of American intellectuals, for nearly all the charges leveled against America’s empire today were made, with even better justification, against the British Empire that preceded it. The interaction between these two empires — the British lion and the American eagle — defined much of what we now call the modern world, and set the stage for the decline of American empire now looming in the near future.

Review of Lt. Col. Eggen’s thesis, Impact of the Peaking of World Oil Production on the Global Balance of Power

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The U.S. war colleges continue to generate insightful analyses of the potential effects of Peak Oil. Recently the U.S. Army Combined and General Staff College (USACGSC) released an excellent study by Lt. Col. GS Pascal Eggen, Swiss Armed Forces.

America: The Two Empires

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There’s a fascinating parallel between the rise of America’s first overseas empire and the emergence of her petroleum industry. The age of oil, in fact, can be seen as an empire of time — the exploitation of the distant past for the benefit of the present — just as empire in the usual sense is an empire of space, the exploitation of distant countries for the benefit of one imperial nation. The two patterns would emerge together to drive a new mode of imperial expansion — one with a sharply limited shelf life.

Oil – Mar 28

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-France discussing strategic oil release with UK, U.S.
-Oil Futures Spark Debate on $100 Level
-South Sudan oil field “bombed”, Sudan says hopes to avert war
-Tanker drivers’ dispute: Acas invites oil firms and union to talks
-Report: Gulf Oil Spill Killed Life Deep Beneath Sea Level
-Shell Sued in U.K. Over ’Massive’ 2008 Nigerian Oil Spills
-World oil import bill heading for record $2 trillion

America: crossing the line

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Understand the economics of empire, and you understand what drives the rise and fall of the imperial trejectory America is following right now. That understanding requires a willingness to let go of the economic notions of the mainstream as well as those of the alternative scene, to test received ideas against the touchstone of history, and to pay close attention to the gap between what industrial economies are supposed to do, and what they do in the real world. The late 19th century, as America moved toward global empire, offers a clear test case.

Executive order – National defense resources preparedness

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Last Friday, with little publicity, President Obama signed a national preparedness executive order that gives US government (USG) cabinet agencies the ability to exercise total control over what are essentially all the resources of the USA.

In my humble opinion, this could also be the USG’s way of telling us that it knows Peak Oil has arrived, and that the age of energy and resource scarcity has officially begun.
(suggested by an EB reader)