Oil and Security in the 21st Century

Abstract

In His State of the Union Address, President Bush outlined the Advanced Energy Initiative to help break America's dependence on foreign sources of energy. The President has set a national goal of replacing more than 75% of U.S. oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. With America on the verge of breakthroughs in advanced energy technologies, the best way to break the addiction to foreign oil is through new technology. That same speech was apparently ill-received in Saudi Arabia, where it was interpreted as a kind of threat towards the Arab oil exporters. We will try here to understand why.

Keywords: OPEC, Muslim nations, Oil, Security, Gulf, USA

JEL Classification: A10, A14, F1, F32, F29, N4, N46, N7, N76