Mike Booth: The Gringo Chronicles

Asia Times Online published an article on May 10, 2008 entitled “An oil-addicted ex-superpower.” The American author, Michael T. Klare, Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, makes a chillingly convincing case for the fact that the United States’ massive borrowing to pay for its oil habit has already cost them their superpower status.

The fact is, says Klare, America’s wealth and power has long rested on the abundance of cheap petroleum. The United States was, for a long time, the world’s leading producer of oil, supplying its own needs while generating a healthy surplus for export.

From the end of World War II through the height of the Cold War, the US claim to superpower status rested on a vast sea of oil.

But those times are long past, according to Klare.

He says, US domestic oil production peaked in 1970 and has been in decline ever since. When it came to reliance on imports, the United States crossed the 50% threshold in 1998 and now has passed 65%… Though few fully realize it, this represented a significant erosion of soverign independence even before the price of a barrel of crude soared above $110. By now, we are transferring such staggering sums yearly to foreign oil producers, who are using it to gobble up valuable American assets, that, whether we know it or not, we have essentially abandoned our claim to superpowerdom.

Meanwhile, other countries are are enjoying petroleum-driven ascendency, countries like the Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the Gulf Emirates, whose “soverign wealth funds” currently hold trillions of dollars in prized American assets. Klare asserts, “In time, however, a transfer of economic power of this magnitude cannot help but translate into a transfer of political power as well.”

War, of course, contributes greatly to the US oil problems. First of all it costs money which the country doesn’t have. And secondly, fighting a war demands a lot of oil, not to mention fighting several wars, which is what the Pentagon seems to be planning.

Klare says, And every sign indicates that the same ratio of increase will apply to coming conflicts; that the daily cost of fighting will skyrocket; and that the Pentagon’s capacity to shoulder multiple foreign military burdens will unravel. Thus are superpowers undone.

So, if the United States–with its dedication to high-on-the-hog lifestyles, SUV’s and endless wars–is the big loser in the oil sweepstakes, who are the winners? Ironically, it seems to be a couple of the Americans’ old acquaintances: Russia and Iran. Russia, the world’s second leading producer of oil and its top producer of natural gas, is the only great power not dependent upon other states for its energy needs. And thanks to the shrewd policies of Vladimir Putin, American firms never acquired substantial energy assets in Russia.

Then there is Iran, who not only sits on massive petroleum deposits, but does so in one of the world’s most important geo-strategic locations.

Klare concludes: As a result of our addiction to increasingly costly imported oil, we have become a different country, weaker and less prosperous. Whether we know it or not… the United States is an ex-superpower-in-the-making.

Michael Klare’s new book,
Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet:
The New Geopolitics of Energy,
is available from Amazon.com