Oilcraftepub,mobi,azw3格式电子书下载，作者：Robert Vitalis-读书派

A bracing corrective to the myths that have shaped economic, military, and diplomatic policy, dispelling our oil-soaked fantasies of dependence.

There is a conventional wisdom about oil―that the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf is what guarantees access to this strategic resource; that the "special" relationship with Saudi Arabia is necessary to stabilize an otherwise volatile market; and that these assumptions in turn provide Washington enormous leverage over Europe and Asia. Except, the conventional wisdom is wrong.

Robert Vitalis debunks the myths to reveal "oilcraft," a line of magical thinking closer to witchcraft than statecraft. Oil is a commodity like any other: bought, sold, and subject to market forces. Thus, the first goal of this book is to expose the suspect fears of oil scarcity and conflict. The second goal is to investigate the significant geopolitical impact of these false beliefs.

In particular, Vitalis shows how we can reconsider the question of the U.S.–Saudi special relationship, which confuses and traps many into unnecessarily accepting what they imagine is a devil's bargain. The House of Saud does many things for U.S. investors, firms, and government agencies, but guaranteeing the flow of oil, making it cheap, or stabilizing the price isn't one of them. Freeing ourselves from the spell of oilcraft won't be easy―but the benefits make it essential.

Robert Vitalis is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier (Stanford, 2007), named one of the best books of the year by the London Guardian and an essential read by Foreign Affairs, as well as White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations (...

小裁缝

11-27

可以浓缩成一个纽约客长篇 oilcraft is an engineered source of distraction from US "buying treasury bonds in secret, selling Saudis arms, paying Washington lobbyists, doing dirty work in the Cold War, reducing the impact of Pentagon budget cuts, calming financial markets, obliging rest of the world to pay in $$ for their oil..to make Gulf friends happy

CG陶菲克

10-10

作者认为，目前学术和大众层面上对石油的理解——石油有限且即将耗尽，美国需要保持对中东石油的控制——是错误的。作者进行了思想史和政治史的考察，这一源自20世纪20年代的理论是以一系列的myth为基础的，并在冷战早期和70年代所谓“石油危机”（作者认为这场危机也是错误认识的）中得到强化。之后作者进行了一个具体的案例分析，指出美国人对沙特阿拉伯的认识（美沙关系是石油换安全，沙特国王是改革派）也是基于myth。非常大胆的作品……不过作者确实做了很多考察工作。

Oilcraft

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