Energy Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

Israel and the Futility of Attacking Iran: Interview with Abolghasem Bayyenat

by Kourosh Ziabari | Jul 19, 2011

Given the largely conflicting political identity of the two governments which in most contexts has defined conflicting foreign policy interests for the two countries , the United States views its relations with Iran as a zero-sum game and will thus struggle to contain Iran’s growing power and influence in the region, even if this would mean swimming against the tide and creating unnecessary costs for its foreign policy in the region.

Japan’s Decline as a Robotics Superpower: Lessons From Fukushima

by Sakai Yasuyuki | Jul 12, 2011

The first robot to go into one of the plant’s reactor buildings, where high radiation was measured after the accident, was a U.S. PackBot. Japanese-made robots, said to be the best in the world, were not at the vanguard of such a crucial event. This has begged the question: Where has the country’s pride as a scientific and technological giant gone?

Japan’s Version of Kool-Aid

by Alexis Dudden | Jul 5, 2011

Lady Gaga went to Japan for a charity concert, proceeds of which go to victims of the March 11 earthquake. All week, Lady Gaga commanded the airwaves, Japan’s current turmoil notwithstanding. The panda eyes she wore on a morning talk show could be the single greatest make-up event ever. But it was something else that Lady Gaga did that really commanded my attention, and the attention of so many Japanese.

Oil Transparency Would Start South Sudan Off on Right Foot

by Simone D'Abreu | Jul 3, 2011

The South Sudan government has been pressured to make its oil industry transparent. But will that ensure its oil assets will be used for the good of Sudan?

The Energy Landscape of 2041

by Michael Klare | Jun 30, 2011

Over the coming decades, we will be embroiled at a global level in a succeed-or-perish contest among the major forms of energy, the corporations which supply them, and the countries that run on them.

Pipeline Politics in Central Asia

by Richard Rousseau | Jun 24, 2011

From the end of the 19th century to the mid-1990s, Central Asia was almost the exclusive domain of Tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia. A “Great Game” involving Tsarist Russia and the British Empire dominated the region’s history in the mid-19th century and what is now South Asia. The growing multi-polarity in global politics and a scramble to secure access to depleting natural resources, especially oil and gas, have led to the emergence of a “New Great Game’ that has the potential to fix the future structure of the global political and economic system. The battle over the construction of new pipelines and the routes they will take is at the heart of this “New Great Game,”which has been playing out in earnest since the mid-1990s.

Saving Uganda from Its Oil

by Jason Hickel | Jun 16, 2011

In 2006, Uganda confirmed the presence of enormous commercial petroleum reserves around Lake Albert along the country’s western border. Since then, geologists have proven at least 2 billion barrels. With only about 25 percent of the region explored, some reports indicate that there could be as much as three times that amount – enough to make Uganda a major player in the African oil industry. The oil is set to begin flowing later this year, or perhaps in early 2012, with production targeted at around 200,000 barrels per day.

Sans Insurance, a Nuclear Meltdown Can Become a Financial Meltdown

by Russ Wellen | May 18, 2011

Since insurance companies refuse to provide more than minimal coverage for nuclear-power plants, the state must absorb the bulk of the costs of a disaster such as Fukushima.

WikiLeaks: Canada’s Harper Embodies American Right’s Worst Tendencies

by Michael Busch | May 17, 2011

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party took a commanding majority in nationwide elections last week, has built his political success on a platform of his country’s supposed Arctic sovereignty, pro-business economics, and dodging action on climate change.

Tax Justice as Climate Justice

by Tom Athanasiou | May 16, 2011

You don’t have to leave America to go to the Third World. I, for example, live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and here, as in all northern megacities, crushing poverty surrounds the comfortable precincts. I can’t call it “extreme” poverty, for of course it cannot compete with the despair endemic to, say, the North African drought zones. But when an organization like Remote Area Medical feels compelled to bring its traveling free clinic to The Oakland Coliseum (now, officially, the Oracle Arena), and when thousands stand for long hours to receive basic care they could not hope to afford, the problem is nonetheless clear. This last April, when the good folks at RAM pulled up stakes and left Oakland for their next stop, it was Haiti. The America they were leaving was not the “exceptional” America of the official dream.