Oil

The Strait Dope

Why Iran can't cut off your oil. 

BY EUGENE GHOLZ | SEPT. / OCT. 2009

The Coming Supply Crunch

How the recession is throttling much-needed investment.

BY FATIH BIROL | SEPT. / OCT. 2009

Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil

It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil -- and the people and places that make it -- was my obsession.

BY PETER MAASS | SEPT. / OCT. 2009

The Devil’s Excrement

Can oil-rich countries avoid the resource curse?

BY MOISÉS NAÍM | SEPT. / OCT. 2009

Seven Myths About Alternative Energy

As the world looks around anxiously for an alternative to oil, energy sources such as biofuels, solar, and nuclear seem like they could be the magic ticket. They're not. 

BY MICHAEL GRUNWALD | SEPT. / OCT. 2009

Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil

Oil may be making its long goodbye, but twilight or not, the Oil Age still defines our world.

SEPT. / OCT. 2009

The New Iran Sanctions: Worse Than the Old Ones

The U.S. Congress is considering cutting off petroleum-products shipments to Iran -- a useless sanction, and a distraction from real solutions.

BY GAL LUFT | AUGUST 11, 2009

"Crippling" Sanctions Will Still Be Ineffective

Target the culprits in Iran; stop punishing the innocent.

BY JAMSHEED K. CHOKSY | AUGUST 4, 2009

A Violent Window of Opportunity

Why troubled times are the perfect chance to calm the Niger Delta.

BY MARK L. SCHNEIDER, NNAMDI OBASI | JULY 17, 2009

Seven Questions: Jay Garner

The man who first led reconstruction efforts in Iraq says that Arab-Kurd tensions are overblown and that "soft partition" would have been a good idea.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JULY 15, 2009

A Hollow Victory for Iraq

How the militants are celebrating the U.S. withdrawal.

BY RANJ ALAALDIN | JULY 9, 2009

Obama's Shallow Realism

Why the U.S. president shouldn't react to one bad foreign policy with another.

BY DAVID GARDNER | JULY 8, 2009

Peril at the Pump

How a new oil-price spike could force a double-dip in the Great Recession.

BY BRADFORD PLUMER | JUNE 24, 2009

The Well Runs Dry

Yemen has long been a basket case. But with oil revenues and water resources fast evaporating and al Qaeda on the loose, Arabia's southern outpost could be headed for total collapse.

BY GREGORY D. JOHNSEN, CHRISTOPHER BOUCEK | FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Putin's Useful Idiots

Wonder why Russia has Europe over a barrel? Ask German environmentalists.

BY WILLIAM YEATMAN | OCTOBER 7, 2008

Reassessing Russia

FEBRUARY 19, 2008

Oil Shock

Peak oil proponent Kjell Alekett, energy expert Vaclav Smil, and energy and national security analyst Keith Smith take issue with Think Again: Oil author Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran's assertions.

JANUARY 1, 2008

What America Must Do: Step on the Gas

The world believes that the only thing Americans care about is cheap oil. Prove them wrong.

BY KENNETH ROGOFF | DECEMBER 18, 2007

Think Again: Oil

It protects wealthy autocrats, poisons the environment, and fuels international conflicts. Yet it won't be the false threat of scarcity or the rise of an Asian energy axis that convinces the world to finally kick the oil habit. An auto revolution courtesy of Silicon Valley and Shanghai may deliver an end to the defining addiction of our age.

BY VIJAY V. VAITHEESWARAN | OCTOBER 11, 2007

Prime Numbers: Pain at the Pump

The impact of high gasoline prices.

BY GERHARD METSCHIES | JUNE 11, 2007

Flip the Switch

Nearly all the world's oil will soon be in the hands of unreliable autocrats. It's time we went electric.

BY AMY MYERS JAFFE | MARCH 31, 2007

Who Wins in Iraq?

Newspaper headlines consistently remind us of the failures coming out of Iraq. The number of U.S. soldiers who have lost their lives continues to climb. The deaths of Iraqi civilians far exceed what almost anyone expected. And insurgent attacks are growing stronger and more deadly. But, if wars always produce losers, it is also true that most wars have a fair share of winners, too. So, we would like to ask, four years into the fighting, what institutions, countries, ideas, or individuals are better off because of the war? Who, in essence, are Iraq's winners? Plus, a special essay by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

FEBRUARY 13, 2007

The First Law of Petropolitics

Iran's president denies the Holocaust, Hugo Chávez tells Western leaders to go to hell, and Vladimir Putin is cracking the whip. Why? They know that the price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions. It's the First Law of Petropolitics, and it may be the axiom to explain our age.

BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN | MAY 1, 2006

The Oil Shield

Iran is commanding the world's attention as the ayatollahs accelerate their race for the bomb. But the timetable for talks -- or a nuclear crisis -- is not being shaped by centrifuges, uranium, or reactors. It's about the security only a barrel of oil can provide.

BY CHRISTOPHER DICKEY | APRIL 25, 2006

Rio de Dinheiro

Mohammed El-Erian is a managing director of PIMCO, the world's largest bond manager. FP spoke to El-Erian about the ups and downs of the global economy.

JULY 1, 2005

A Taxing Journey

MARCH 1, 2005

In Hindsight: Oil Prices

High prices at gas pumps worldwide have reopened the debate about oil dependency. FP dips into its archive for a look at this issue through the years.

NOVEMBER 1, 2004

How to Reform Saudi Arabia Without Handing It to Extremists

To survive, the monarchy must battle the militants, reassure the religious establishment, and give the middle class a taste of democracy.

BY F. GREGORY GAUSE III | SEPTEMBER 1, 2004

Russia's Oily Future

Overcoming geology, not ideology, will become Moscow's greatest challenge.

BY MOISÉS NAÍM | JANUARY 1, 2004