The Moral Equivalent of War?

摘要

"Americans should not fear our economic future, because we intend to shape it", said President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address on 31st January this year. If the President is to be taken at his word, in this boldly interventionist assertion from the party of small government, one element of that future will be that US reliance on oil imports from the Middle East will be cut by three quarters by 2025. Contrast that with the expectations of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in their new World Energy Outlook, published in November 2005. Over the period to 2030, the Agency sees net oil exports from the Middle East and North Africa rising by three quarters. Confident that the resources are there to be exploited, the IEA insists that the region can meet a growing share of burgeoning global oil demand, despite its own rising share of world oil and gas consumption.