"A thoughtful and well-researched history of oil and geopolitics . . . Mr. Klare provides a service when
he puts America's close ties with Saudi Arabia in a historical context."
--The Economist
"A steady poli-sci elaboration of U.S. foreign policy of the past 60 years as viewed through the lens of oil
. . . [Blood and Oil] is elaborately sourced [and] dismayingly convincing."
--Lisa Margonelli, San Francisco Chronicle
"Michael Klare's Blood and Oil is the best book among the recent outpouring of studies on oil and world affairs.
I am using it in three classes this semester. Indeed, it is a model of how to research and write contemporary history.
Carefully researched, convincingly argued, and clearly written, it shows how oil's role in American society and
politics influences U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Blood and Oil is essential reading for anyone concerned
about the sources and dynamics of U.S. foreign policy."
--David Painter, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
"Donald Rumsfeld famously declared that the Iraq War 'has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do
with oil.' Nonsense, demonstrates Michael Klare, in Blood and Oil, a compelling new assessment of America's bet
on Middle Eastern oil as the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Klare's mastery of the interplay of natural resources
and conflict is unrivaled, and his new study is timely and vitally important."
--Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
"Blood and Oil throws into sharp relief the political and social dimensions of the most important problem
of our times. Reasoned and readable, it sketches out the terrible consequences of our nation's immense and growing
addiction hto petroleum. This is an important book."
--David Goodstein, author of Out of Gas
"You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist or a Michael Moore enthusiast to think that Donald Rumsfeld and
his colleagues in the Bush administration are being disingenuous when they declare that the war in Iraq is not
about oil . . . Klare, a professor of peace and world-security studies at Hampshire College and defense correspondent
for The Nation, suggests that the United States has never resolved the inherent tension between our need for assured
supplies of petroleum to keep the economy cooking and our growing reliance on overseas sources of that oil, especially
from areas, like the Persian Gulf, that have a long and continuing history of instability . . . But the questions
[raised in this book] transcend approval or disapproval of any one administration, and go to the core of whether
any country can--purposefully and without vast disruptions--make the transition from an economy dependent on one
finite resource to an economy based on renewable, nonpolluting resources . . . [Klare notes that] such a transition
would be difficult in the best of times, and that these are not the best of times . . . Klare [also argues that]
the Bush administration's war on terrorism, the impulse of its neoconservative supporters to spread 'democracy'
to the Middle East, and our desperate need for stable supplies of oil have merged into a single strategy--one that
will commit us to maintaining military forces in many parts of the world and to using those forces to protect oil
fields and supply routes. 'It is getting hard,' he writes, 'to distinguish U.S. military operations designed to
fight terrorism from those designed to protect energy assets' . . . We are headed into uncharted territory, led
by a government that seems prepared to use force, when necessary, to preserve the current system. We face growing
competition from other countries for a finite resource at a time of growing animosity toward the United States."
--Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle of Higher Education
"The rapid increase in the price of gasoline is a direct result of the failure of the U.S. to develop a realistic
energy policy. As Michael Klare demonstrates in this provocative new book, we will continue to pay high prices
and use military force unless we reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East. A must read for Americans concerned
about national security and economic growth."
--Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and former Assistant Secretary of Defense
"Incisive and accurate . . . From our gluttonous demand for fuel to power our automobiles to the activities
of Centcom in the Persian Gulf, Michael Klare is invariably incisive and accurate. With a petroleum import dependency
well over fifty percent, the United States is digging its own grave."
--Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
"Oil, says Michael Klare, makes us strong, but dependency makes us weak. His clear, informed, and troubling
diagnosis of America's greatest addiction comes as oil's rising cost in blood and treasure requires us to understand
the greater perils to come. Blood and Oil proves that oil's substitutes--and especially their efficient use--are
an even greater bargain than they look. Too much time has already been wasted on denial. America's security, power,
and freedom now turn on our choice."
--Amory B. Lovins, Cofounder and CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute
"Compelling and insightful . . . U.S. dependence on oil is not something that can be dealt with 'down the
road,' Klare posits. He offers thoughtful solutions that, while expensive, are essential to escape compromising
the principles of American policy. This powerful book forecasts that if we do not change the paradigm, the flow
of blood will continue unabated while a dwindling supply of oil will threaten powerful and weak nations alike."
--H. C. Stackpole, Lieutenant General, USMC (ret.)
"The world's rapidly growing economy is dependent on oil, the supply is running out and the U.S. and other
great powers are engaged in an escalating game of brinkmanship to secure its continued free flow. Such is the premise
of Klare's powerful and brilliant new book (following Resource Wars). The U.S.--with less than 5% of the world's
total population--consumes about 25% of the world's total supply of oil, he argues. With no meaningful conservation
being attempted, Klare sees the nation's energy behavior dominated by four key trends: 'an increasing need for
imported oil; a pronounced shift toward unstable and unfriendly suppliers in dangerous parts of the world; a greater
risk of anti-American or civil violence; and increased competition for what will likely be a diminishing supply
pool.' In clear, lucid prose, Klare lays out a disheartening and damning indictment of U.S. foreign policy. From
the waning days of WW II, when Franklin Roosevelt gave legitimacy to the autocratic Saudi royalty, to the current
conflict in Iraq, Klare painstakingly describes a nation controlled by its unquenchable thirst for oil. Rather
than setting out a strategy for energy independence, he finds a roadmap for further U.S. dependence on imported
oil, more exposure for the U.S. military overseas and, as a result, less safety for Americans at home and abroad.
While Klare offers some positive suggestions for solving the problem, in tone and detail this work sounds a dire
warning about the future of the world."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Web Site, August, 2005
Summary
In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in
conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum,
while issuing a warning to the United States--its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer.
Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused
on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath
the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence
on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand
increases; by 2010 the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will
have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones--the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea,
Latin America, and Africa--our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement.
With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time
to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.