Running on Empty: Emerging Challenges in Global Energy Security

Beginning of article

The last time energy security dominated the world stage was during the energy crises of the 1970s and early 1980s when events in the Middle East and belligerent Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) policy conspired to drive oil prices to their highest levels ever, and, by some accounts, derailed the economic growth of the industrialized world in the process. Today, six years after the liberation of Kuwait, oil flows unimpeded. A strong US presence in the Persian Gulf, the containment of Iran, Iraq, and Libya, and close ties between oil-consuming nations and oil producers have contributed to the widespread perception that the world's energy supply is, indeed, secure. Oil …