Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Oil

Logistics of the Syrian and Iraqi War

Logistics of the Syrian and Iraqi War

Even if war is not always good for business, it is at least a business. Whether dealing in arms, antiquities, oil, grain, taxes or international aid, the Islamic State is building the basis for the sort of exploitative economy whose inequities and corruption (ironically) helped its star rise among the poor and discontented.

read more

Iraq’s Oil Split

Iraq’s Oil Split

  It is not breaking news that Iraq sits atop vast amounts of oil. The country has the fifth largest proven crude oil reserves globally with an estimated 140 billion barrels. (For comparison: Iran, fourth globally, has an estimated 150 billion barrels, and Kuwait, sixth globally, has about 104 billion barrels of proved reserves. Iraq […]

read more

A Candid Discussion with Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute

A Candid Discussion with Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute

Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. Dr. Cagaptay has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals as well as key American and Turkish media outlets. He writes regularly as a columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, Turkey’s oldest and […]

read more

Energy: The tie that binds Beijing and Moscow

Energy: The tie that binds Beijing and Moscow

Russia and China last month agreed to a landmark natural gas deal nearly a decade in the making that will put the two in partnership for the next 30 years. Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, and the China National Petroleum Corp. signed the much-anticipated $400 billion natural gas deal on May 21. The exact pricing remains […]

read more

The Political Economy of Oil Income in Iran

The Political Economy of Oil Income in Iran

Editor’s Note: The following is a contributing guest piece. Saeed Ghasseminejad is the cofounder of the Iranian Liberal students and Graduates (ILSG) and the International Center for Liberalism Studies (ICLS). His work on economy and politics of Iran and the Middle East and has been published in CNBC, The Weekly Standard, National Post, International Business […]

read more

Kurds eye independence in oil

Kurds eye independence in oil

To the south, Iraqi Kurdistan sees an unstable Baghdad struggling to maintain control against a violent insurgency, all the while seeking to exert control over the Kurdish region’s vast oil wealth. It is to the west, though, where Kurds see a brighter future, eyeing the opportunity for independence through a pipeline to Turkey to sell […]

read more

Oil companies push ahead with plans in Russia and Canada while sidelined in the U.S.

Oil companies push ahead with plans in Russia and Canada while sidelined in the U.S.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that more crude oil is being sent by sea and inland waterways as a supplement to railways and pipelines. Since 2010, the amount of oil shipped on barges from the Midwest down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico has increased 13 times. Much of this […]

read more

Gasoline prices and energy security at stake in U.S. oil export debate

Gasoline prices and energy security at stake in U.S. oil export debate

One of the year’s most urgent policy questions—whether or not the U.S. should export oil–is finally garnering attention in Washington as both sides of the U.S. oil export debate make their case. The United States began safeguarding domestically produced oil after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which caused supply disruptions and price spikes in the […]

read more

Chemical Weapons destroyed as Libya descends into chaos

Chemical Weapons destroyed as Libya descends into chaos

Libyan foreign minister Mohamed Abdelaziz announced earlier this week that with Western assistance, Libya had completed the destruction of its chemical weapons. The process to dismantle the Libyan chemical stockpile began in 2004 under the Ghaddafi regime as part of his campaign to normalize relations with the West. At that time, Libya had declared approximately […]

read more

Canadian and Russian claims to the Arctic: The allure of the North Pole

Canadian and Russian claims to the Arctic: The allure of the North Pole

“We do not give up the North Pole. Canada’s claims to the North Pole are no more than ambition.” So declared Russian polar explorer and scientist Artur Chilingarov on December 11, whom President Vladimir Putin named a “Hero of Russia” after he famously planted his country’s flag on the seabed underneath the North Pole in 2007. […]

read more

Singapore steals the show at the Arctic Circle

Singapore steals the show at the Arctic Circle

For all the talk of China and the Arctic, there’s one dark horse that definitely made itself known at the Arctic Circle: Singapore. With a speech that hit all the right notes, Sam Tan Chin Siong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Member of Parliament, described the contributions Singapore can […]

read more

Three conferences in one week propel Iceland to center of Arctic discussions

Three conferences in one week propel Iceland to center of Arctic discussions

Under the guidance of President Ólafur Grímsson, Iceland has strived to position itself as a new geopolitical center for the Arctic. While only a tiny portion of the country, the island of Grimsey, sits above the Arctic Circle, that hasn’t stopped it from claiming Arctic coastal statehood. With lots of shipping activity, plans to build […]

read more

Conference in New Delhi analyzes Asia-Arctic linkages

Conference in New Delhi analyzes Asia-Arctic linkages

“It’s so far, but so very near to us now.” This is what Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha observed during the opening of the AsiArctic conference at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) in New Delhi, India last week. India received observer status in the Arctic Council in May of this year, along with […]

read more

Election in Norway: Implications for the Lofoten Islands

Election in Norway: Implications for the Lofoten Islands

In my previous post, I noted how there isn’t likely to be a dramatic shift in Norway’s Arctic policy even though the Conservatives will now be at the helm of government. Regardless of whether Labour or the Conservatives dominate, oil will still be one of Norway’s top priorities in the Arctic. But questions remain as […]

read more

Conservative victory in Norway: What does it mean for the Arctic?

Conservative victory in Norway: What does it mean for the Arctic?

In Norway’s elections on Monday, the Conservative party (Høyre) won the most seats, sweeping Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg from power after eight years. The Conservatives, however, did not win enough seats to form a majority government. As such, headed by new Prime Minister Erna Solberg, they will likely ally with the populist, anti-immigrant Progress […]

read more

About Us

Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.