Oil Dictator Dominos
Bill Emmott Price movements as large and rapid as those that have upended oil markets since June 2014 are sure to cause pain to some and benefit others. Though the pain tends to capture the most attention, the benefit is just as important – if not more so. The 70% drop in the price of a barrel of cr…
Pipeline politics to return to the fore in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Max Hess The future of European gas resources may run through the South Caucasus. 2016 is likely to be a pivotal year in determining the extent of the region’s importance in gas transit, as well as the role of Central Asian states, and potentially even Iran, in supplying these routes. Geopolitical c…
As Moldova Marches
Antonia Colibasanu The better-known “Radetzky March” is a musical march, Op. 228, composed by Jonah Strauss Sr. and played commonly at New Year’s concerts. Less famous, perhaps, is the book written by Joseph Roth that goes by the same name. Roth’s “The Radetzky March” is a score written to the rhyth…
No Parking Here
Clive Thompson If you drive out to visit Disney’s Epcot center in Orlando, Florida, you will arrive at one of the biggest parking lots in America. With room for 12,000 cars, it sprawls out over 7 million square feet—about the size of 122 football fields. If you look at the lot on Google Maps, you re…
Amid Protests, Moldova Finally Appoints a Government
Stratfor Just a week before Moldova would have had to hold early elections, the country’s Parliament approved a new government led by former IT and Communications Minister Pavel Filip. The vote allows the Moldovan Parliament to remain intact under a pro-European coalition. However, immediately after…
World oil supply and demand
James Hamilton According to the Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Energy Review database, world field production of crude oil in September was up 1.5 million barrels a day over the previous year. More than all of that came from a 440,000 b/d increase in the U.S., 550,000 b/d from Saudi Ara…
Let China win. It’s good for America.
Joshua Kurlantzick When Chinese officials announced in 2013 that they would open an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to primarily fund big construction projects across the Pacific, they launched a slow-motion freak-out in Washington. As they went around the world inviting governments to join, Ob…
Rethinking Sanctions
Kofi A. Annan and Kishore Mahbubani Today, the United Nations Security Council has more sanctions regimes in place than at any time in its history. During the 1990s, the maximum was eight; in the 2000s, the peak rose to 12; now it stands at 16. And these totals do not include sanctions imposed…
The oil-price slump: crisis symptom or fuel for growth?
Georg Zachmann The oil price dropped to a new 11 year low at the beginning of the year. Oil price movements are the result of three factors: changes in oil supply; changes in the importance of oil in the economy and changes in the global economic climate. Oil supply Oil supply is outstripping expect…
Oman, stuck between Saudi Arabia and Iran
Giorgio Cafiero The Sultanate of Oman has always been the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member on best terms with Iran. Muscat’s alliance with Tehran must be understood within the context of Oman’s independent approach to foreign affairs under Sultan Qaboos’ leadership. Since seizing power in 1970,…