Oil pulses through our daily lives. It is the plastic we touch, the food
we eat, and the way we move. Oil politics in the twentieth century was
about the management of abundance, state power, and market growth. The
legacy of this age of plenty includes declining conventional oil
reserves, volatile prices, climate change, and enduring poverty in many
oil-rich countries. The politics of oil are now at a turning point, and
its future will not be like its past.
In this in-depth primer to one of the world's most significant
industries, authors Gavin Bridge and Philippe Le Billon take a fresh
look at the contemporary political economy of oil. Going beyond simple
assertions of peak oil and an oil curse, they point to an industry
reordered by global shifts in demand toward Asia, growing reliance on
unconventional reserves, international commitments to reduce carbon
emissions, a growing campaign for fossil fuel divestment, and violent
political struggles in many producer states.
As a new geopolitics of oil emerges, the need for effective global oil
governance becomes imperative. Highlighting the growing influence of
civil society and attentive to the efforts of firms and states to craft
new institutions, this fully updated second edition identifies the
challenges and opportunities to curtail price volatility, curb demand
and the growth of dirty oil, decarbonize energy systems, and improve
governance in oil-producing countries.
