Product Details
Over a Barrel: The Costs of U.S. Foreign Oil Dependence (Stanford Law Books)

Over a Barrel: The Costs of U.S. Foreign Oil Dependence (Stanford Law Books)
By John Duffield

List Price: $27.95
Price: $21.24 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

17 new or used available from $12.50

Average customer review:

Product Description

The United States is highly dependent on foreign oil. Well over half of the oil and petroleum products consumed in America—approximately 12 million barrels per day, or more than 600 gallons for every man, woman, and child each year—now come from abroad. And the U.S. government projects that the level of imports will only continue to rise, reaching between 16 and 21 million barrels per day by 2025.

What precisely are the costs of U.S. foreign oil dependence? Unfortunately, no one has yet offered a satisfactory answer to this vital question. As a result, the costs to the United States of its dependence on oil from abroad have gone largely unrecognized and, in fact, are much greater than most people realize. Some costs, like the annual bill for oil imports—and, by reflection, the price that motorists pay at the pump or the size of homeowners’ heating oil bills—are obvious and quantifiable. A number of others, however, are not so apparent or easy to measure. For example, it is difficult to put a price tag on the costs of coddling oil-rich authoritarian regimes at the expense of promoting representative government, human rights, and other important values.

This book seeks to remedy this oversight by providing the first comprehensive analysis of the costs—both economic and policy-related—of U.S. foreign oil dependence and how they might be reduced. It shows that since the 1970s, the economic costs alone have run into the trillions of dollars. Successive administrations have tended to neglect the opportunities at home to reduce these costs by limiting demand. Instead, they have emphasized foreign and military policies that have proven both highly expensive and largely unsuccessful.

One positive conclusion the author draws is that the opportunities for reducing oil consumption remain largely unexploited and the costs of U.S. foreign oil dependence can still be substantially reduced at relatively little expense. At least as important, however, will be rethinking and revising the expensive foreign, security, and military policies and commitments that have developed around U.S. foreign oil dependence over the past three decades.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #852397 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-10-18
  • Released on: 2007-10-22
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 312 pages

Features

  • ISBN13: 9780804754996
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Most in the U.S. would agree that American dependence on foreign oil, especially from countries hostile to the U.S. government, is an undesirable situation. Duffield (Power Rules: The Evolution of NATO's Conventional Force Posture), a political science professor at Georgia State University, focuses on documenting the problems with this dependence and how to fix them. Making the obvious but often overlooked point that depending on imported oil carries more than economic consequences at the gas pump and the home furnace, Duffield notes the costs to American consumers, such as skyrocketing heating bills from government foreign policy and military efforts to protect unreliable overseas supplies. So far, those policy responses have increased rather than decreased costs. For example, policy makers have neglected opportunities to reduce oil use, instead favoring protection of existing international sources (especially in Saudi Arabia) and finding new ones. Although Duffield is dubious about American intervention overseas, he does endorse American hegemony as a route to changing oil-related attitudes and policies worldwide. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Making the obvious but often overlooked point that depending on imported oil carries more than economic consequences at the gas pump and the home furnace, Duffield notes the costs to American consumers, such as skyrocketing heating bills from government foreign policy and military efforts to protect unreliable overseas supplies. So far, those policy responses have increased rather than decreased costs. ...Although Duffield is dubious about American intervention overseas, he does endorse American hegemony as a route to changing oil-related attitudes and policies worldwide."—Publishers Weekly


"Duffield's outstanding book lays out the comprehensive costs of U.S. oil dependence. He shows very effectively that these costs are far higher than we believe. This should be 'must reading' for academics, students, and policymakers concerned about America's future." —Dr. Steve A. Yetiv, Old Dominion University


"John Duffield is at once an excellent political scientist, experienced observer of American foreign affairs, clear and crisp writer, and pragmatic policy analyst. His study on the costs of our foreign oil addiction is an excellent guide to those wishing to understand this critical challenge for our planet's environmental sustainability and our nation's economy and security."—Michael E. O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution

About the Author

John S. Duffield is Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. He has published two previous books with Stanford University Press: Power Rules: The Evolution of NATO's Conventional Force Posture (1995) and World Power Forsaken: Political Culture, International Institutions, and German Security Policy After Unification(1998).

Customer Reviews

Why the cover is Black5
I was in a political science class when I first heard of the proposition that people go to war over oil. I thought, you don't risk your life for oil --- people go to war to keep from being killed. This analysis of the economic and political aspects of oil use reveals the truth. Having a car comes with costs and consequences that are far reaching. The number one lesson from this story is that we are unnecessarily exposing ourselves and others to war and killing. Advocating for legislation that brings better gas mileage, alternative fuels, and mass transit is a moral must. The book's graphs display the nature and growth of our oil use, the tables sum up the costs of storing oil and protecting it, and the last chapter charts the way out.

The High Costs of an Energy Intense Economy5
If gasoline pump prices approaching $4 per gallon are not enough to convince Americans that U.S. energy policies have been (are currently) ineffective, perhaps reading this book will help us better appreciate the effects of importing over 12 million barrels per day of oil. By expanding his analysis beyond the direct economic costs (wealth transfer abroad, reduction in GDP), to include the policy implications (foreign and military, as well as, domestic economic policies), Political Science Professor Duffield makes the case that the U.S. may well be better served by foreign and military policy decisions to "de-securitize" oil, while implementing domestic policies to reduce the oil intensity of the economy.

The Professor's analysis goes something like this: Oil is a fungible commodity with its price set on world markets. The U.S. is by far the world's largest oil consumer with the most "oil intense" economy - its transportation sector being the most demanding. Oil Imports are a direct wealth transfer, primarily to the Persian Gulf region. Domestic economic policies rely primarily on 'market forces', with a strategic petroleum reserve maintained to mitigate future oil shocks. Foreign policy with its overall goal to make sure that oil will be reliably available, and the supporting U.S. military responses have both direct and indirect costs, not the least of which is the creation of political instability and the empowering of actors hostile to the U.S. In summary the burden of these policies threaten the very economy they report to support; and a total rethink is required.

Now, this is not a new argument, but Professor Duffield does an admirable job of summarizing and sorting the elements, before he spends the better part of the concluding chapter suggesting how to reduce the costs of oil dependence through changes in both domestic and foreign policy.

This book is not a quick or easy read, nor is it a pure academic summary of facts - the complexity of the topic does not allow that, and Duffield is a political science professor whose views do seep thru his compilation of facts and figures. But, this is a subject that is becoming more critical by the month for America, and this book has the potential to inform a very important conversation; a conversation with obvious economic and political consequences.

Dennis DeWilde, author of "The Performance Connection"

A comprehensive look at America's oil policy4
This ambitious, scholarly book, complete with statistics and charts on all things oil, undertakes the difficult task of measuring the price of U.S. dependence on this energy source. A comprehensive political and military history, it explains the geopolitics behind U.S. energy policy and analyzes its intended and unintended consequences, especially during today's period of scarce energy. Duffield proposes solutions to the strategic problems U.S. policy creates, even though some of his suggestions are not quantifiable or easily achieved. getAbstract recommends this book to energy and utility company executives, government officials and other serious readers who want to understand the numbers and history behind this international dilemma.