Energy

Argument

Trump Wants to Steal Middle East Oil, and He’s Not Alone

“I’ve always said,” Donald Trump told Matt Lauer at the Commander-in-Chief Forum on Sept. 7, “take the oil.” It was a rare instance of Trump ...

Voice

OPEC Is in its Death Throes

Like the boy who cried wolf, 2016 might become the year of the oil producers’ cartel that cried “output cut.” If that’s right, and the ...

Report

U.S. to OPEC: Don’t Drill, Baby, Don’t Drill

OPEC, the dysfunctional cartel that has gifted case studies in the “prisoner’s dilemma” to business schools for years, unveiled an agreement to potentially cap oil ...

Feature

Inside Venezuela’s Prison Underworld

Venezuela is in the middle of an economic collapse. With hyperinflation projected to reach 480 percent by the end of this year, severe food ...

Argument

France’s Bongo-Bongo Party

“There is France, and there is Africa,” French President François Hollande announced on a state visit to Senegal in 2012. It was a remark validated ...

Observation Deck

How Not to Be a Civilization

Who has not stood before a vista -- snow-capped peaks, a coral seascape teeming with reef fish, a desert stretching parched and golden to the ...

Sightlines

The Exchange: Why Nation Is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told

To Chigozie Obioma, there is more to writing fiction than crafting engaging characters and plots. Writers, he says, have an opportunity to assess and critique ...

Passport

Watch: Iranian Attack-Boats Swarm U.S. Destroyer

Four Iranian attack-boats sped dangerously close to the U.S. destroyer Nitze this week, in a reminder of Iran’s power to disrupt U.S. naval operations in ...

Argument

The Party Is Over in Rio

As the Olympic torch was extinguished Sunday night in a carnival of song and dance, the good times rolled. But it is too early to ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin Attends Moscow Cathedral Mosque Opening

Report

NATO Plays It Cool as Russia and Turkey Grow Closer

NATO on Wednesday took the unusual step of reaffirming that Turkey, a member state since 1952, is in fact still part of the alliance. Turkey’s status, ...

Report

Poland Takes Aim at Putin’s Pipe Dreams

This summer hasn’t seen a lot of setbacks for Russia, not even for its Olympic hopefuls. Crimea has been annexed and fully absorbed, with the ...

Report

Can Natural Gas Put Cyprus Back Together Again?

The emerging energy boom in the eastern Mediterranean could be just what’s needed to finally reunify Cyprus after the island has spent more than 40 ...

Sightlines

Rare-Earth Market

Most people have no idea what’s in an iPhone. Yttrium and praseodymium don’t exactly roll off the tongue, but they’re part of what make smartphones ...

Sightlines

Innovations: Why the Future of War Might Look Like Vegas

Naval arsenals have long revolved around missiles. These hulking systems, however, consume precious space, are expensive, and can run out of ammo when a ship ...

The Cable

White House Issues Strict Rules for Arctic Drilling

President Barack Obama just made it even more difficult and expensive to drill for oil in the Arctic. On Thursday, the White House rolled out ...

Feature

The Coldest Case

At around 11 p.m. one May night, Demetrese Granger drove up to a white, two-story house in Norwich, Connecticut, that had a “For Rent” sign ...

Report

Here’s Why Erdogan Is Cozying Up to Putin

Turkey’s push to make nice with Russia, as it did this week with Israel, is part of Ankara’s drive to shore up as many friendships ...

Report

Israel’s Reconciliation With Turkey Could Lead to New Energy Deals

Israel and Turkey agreed to normalize diplomatic relations Monday, six years after an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship sent to Gaza opened a ...

Argument

China’s Pivot to Putin’s Friends

When Gennady Timchenko -- a Russian oligarch and close friend of President Vladimir Putin -- was appointed chair of the Russian-Chinese Business Council, an association ...

Report

The Era of Cheap Oil Is Coming to an End

In the past two years, a flood of crude has pushed down oil prices, battering corporate balance sheets and wreaking havoc with budgets in oil-dependent ...

Dispatch

Trouble Is Brewing in Nigeria’s Oil Country

WARRI, Nigeria — Every attack on an oil pipeline leaves Felix Timileami feeling as if he’s on top of the world. The 39-year-old, who belongs ...

Argument

Saudi Arabia’s First Step Is Admitting It Has an Oil Problem

The Saudi royal family has gambled its prestige on a bold economic reform plan, meant to revive an economy battered by sharply lower oil revenues. ...

Report

India, One of the World’s Biggest Polluters, Will Join Climate Change Accord

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said New Delhi aims to formally join the Paris climate agreement this year, a historic move by the world’s fastest-growing ...

Report

China’s Power Grab in the Heart of Europe

Beijing is spending billions on pipelines, ports, and railways in Europe. It may not buy them the influence they want.

Report

Trump’s Huge Energy Speech Was Hugely Wrong

Donald Trump waded into energy policy in a speech in North Dakota on Thursday, betraying the same lack of basic knowledge about how the energy ...

Podcast

The Green Movement and its Inconvenient Truths

[audio mp3="https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/160518_globalthinkers_mixdown.mp3"][/audio] In this week’s Global Thinkers podcast, Urgenda co-founder and director Marjan Minnesma joins filmmaker and activist Josh Fox, director of the upcoming How to ...

The South Asia Channel

India Acts East

Washington’s Asia rebalance, first articulated by President Barack Obama in a 2011 speech to Australia’s parliament, has received ample attention. India’s envisioned pivot to Asia has garnered far less. Nonetheless, India’s ...

Shadow Government

Saudi Arabia Begins to Imagine Life Without Oil

Saudi Arabia appears to be making plans for life beyond oil. Following hints from Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country on April 25 released its "Vision ...

Report

Iran’s Hollow Threats to Close the Strait of Hormuz

This week, Iran has escalated a war of words over American access to the Persian Gulf and threatened to close the vital waterway to U.S. ...

Feature

Decoder: North Korea’s Maritime Industry

On Feb. 28, the cargo freighter Jin Teng, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, arrived in the Philippines. It was using what’s known as a “flag ...

Report

Spooked by Beijing, India Embraces Closer U.S. Ties

China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea has complicated the U.S. pivot to Asia. But those same antics, plus some Chinese muscle-flexing off the ...

Feature

Aperture: Exit the King

In Azerbaijan, oil reigns. The country sits atop some 7 billion barrels of reserves. Post-Soviet industrial development, along with surging oil prices, generated monumental economic ...

Report

Saudi Arabia Plans to Break Its ‘Addiction’ to Oil

Saudi Arabia on Monday unveiled a sweeping plan to diversify its economy and wean its excessive reliance on crude oil exports by 2030, a blueprint ...

Argument

This Is Not the Time for an Independent Kurdistan

Many have wondered when Iraqi Kurdistan, which already enjoys broad autonomy from Baghdad, might finally declare independence. The present moment doesn’t seem particularly auspicious for ...

Dispatch

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Islamic State

I met Abu Samou when he pulled over to the side of the road in his small Foton truck in Al-Bab, a lifeless city with ...

Report

Dutch Treat: Russia Dodges a Bullet in the $50 Billion Yukos Case — For Now

A Dutch court threw Russia an unexpected lifeline Wednesday in a $50 billion arbitration case, pushing a decade-long legal saga into further appeals that could ...

Report

To Punish Iran, Saudis Scuttle Oil-Freeze Plan

OPEC’s failure over the weekend to reach a deal to freeze oil production at current levels, and thus nudge oil prices back up, shows that ...

Report

Under President Sanders, the Planet Will Feel the Burn

Whether on stage during debates or on the stump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders vows he’ll do more to fight climate change than any other U.S. ...

Report

King Coal Is Losing His Throne

Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest privately owned coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Wednesday. The company becomes the latest ...

Report

Tiny Kosovo Faces a Big Energy Dilemma

Almost everyone agrees that Kosovo, home to 1.8 million people and one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, desperately needs more energy. The question ...

Argument

Africa’s Petrostates Are Imploding

Africa’s petrostates are crashing hard. A cool $115 in the summer of 2014, a barrel of Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, now fetches below ...

Passport

One Saudi’s Protest, Through The Viewfinder

Five images, glowing with the black and blue hue of an x-ray, stand side-by-side in a row. On one end, Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater’s ...

The Cable

This Chart Shows the U.S. Economy Might Be In Better Shape Than Voters Think

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have built their campaigns around the idea that the American economy is faltering. Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen says low ...

Report

China Is Getting Serious About Kicking Its Coal Addiction

After closing coal mines, Beijing is halting the construction of hundreds of coal-fired power plants. But is it too late?

Report

Clinton Tries to Stake Out New Turf on Energy Policy

In recent weeks, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has moved to the left on energy policy, seemingly yanked by the Bernie Sanders insurgency. Much as happened ...

Middle East Instability Props Oil Price Close to All Time High

Report

Turns Out Economic Growth Doesn’t Mean Destroying the Planet

The world seems to have found a way to keep growing every year without further destroying the environment, potentially sundering the link between growth and ...

Passport

After Activist’s Murder, Dutch Investors Question Ties to Hydroelectric Project

Two weeks ago, Gustavo Castro fell to the floor and pretended to be dead, waiting for the gunmen who shot Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres ...

The 168th Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Conference

Argument

Saudi Arabia's Oil Freeze Is a Serious Miscalculation

At OPEC’s December meeting in Vienna, the delegation from Saudi Arabia ignored the pleas of some of the bloc’s more economically fragile members, whose ranks ...

Report

Can a Desperate Brazil Finally Tap Its Oil Wealth?

Brazil is wracked by the Zika virus, rising inflation, a deep recession, massive political and corporate scandals, and worries that athletes at the 2016 Summer ...

Global Warming, Full Moon, High Tide Cause Flooding In Miami Beach

Report

Climate Change Is Undeniable. So Why Is the GOP Still Denying It?

MIAMI — Florida is waging a quixotic battle against climate change that becomes immediately and aggravatingly apparent when driving anywhere in Miami. Endless orange traffic ...

Report

With Power Plants Getting Hacked, Senate Looks For Ways To Keep The Lights On

On Dec. 23, hackers targeted three Ukrainian electricity companies, plunging 225,000 people into darkness. The attack was the first confirmed cyberattack to have caused a ...

Report

A Mysterious Pipeline Closure Is Bankrupting Iraqi Kurds

Iraqi Kurds' dreams of energy-financed political independence are taking a beating -- and not just because of low oil prices. Since the middle of February, ...

Passport

U.S. Warns of ‘Catastrophic Failure’ of Iraq’s Mosul Dam

The United States is ringing alarm bells about the deadly consequences of a breach in the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, warning publicly over the ...

Report

America’s Natural Gas Exports Won’t Be Enough to Blunt Putin’s Energy Weapon

A massive tanker eased into its berth in Louisiana last week and began loading thousands of tons of super-chilled American natural gas. The ship made ...

Argument

The Irrational Exuberance About the Iranian Economy

“You’re so happy!” I couldn’t help but smile at Kaveh as I climbed into the backseat of an old, white Iranian Peugeot taxi on a warm ...

Report

The No-Good, Very Bad Days for U.S. Oil Producers Are Here to Stay

U.S. producers are begging Riyadh to cut production to push up prices. A top Saudi minister says that’s not going to happen.

The Cable

What The Heck Are Cocos and Why Is Everyone Freaking Out About Them?

The global market sell-off that continued Thursday in the United States can be blamed on a lot of things, including China’s economic slowdown, low oil ...

Argument

Nigeria Is Coming Apart at the Seams

Crowds of Igbo-speaking people barricade streets across southeastern Nigeria, bringing traffic to a standstill. They wave black, green, and red secessionist flags; distribute their own ...

The Cable

This Is What Happens When Good News Is Bad For U.S. Stocks

Equities in the U.S. followed their global counterparts into a sharp drop Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by as much as 357 ...

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