Synopses & Reviews
China is now the world's second largest energy consumer, trailing only behind America. And India has moved up into the fourth place behind Russia, after overtaking Japan in 2001. Dramatically changing the geopolitics of oil in the new century, China and India are rapidly expanding their navies as they become increasingly dependent on lines of oil tankers from the Middle East, posing the beginning of an eventual challenge to American hegemony in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
But while competition for oil sharpens (the world is approaching the projected peak oil output in 2012) the number of countries able to export the commodity is shrinking. Those countries will be largely Muslim, or like Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, hostile to Western interests. No Oil sets the stage for the coming oil wars of the 21st century.
About the Author
Dilip Hiro is based in London and writes regularly for the Observer, the Guardian, the Washington Post and The Nation, and is a frequent commentator on CNN, BBC, Sky TV and various American and British radio channels. He is also the author of Sharing the Promised Land: A Tale of Israelis and Palestinians; Between Marx and Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia; Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran After the Gulf Wars; and War Without End: Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response.