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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:18 AM
Original message
New book: 'Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar'
Edited on Mon Jul-18-05 08:21 AM by Petrodollar Warfare
For those familiar with my research and interested in the arcane subject matter of the global economy, Peak Oil, and the unspoken oil currency war between the dollar the euro, I am pleased to announce that my book is finally being released this week. It only took 3 years of research, 1.5 years of writing, and 640+ footnotes, to produce my little magnum opus, but I think most objective readers will find it interesting, even if somewhat disconcerting. Here's the publisher's Press Release:

Media Contact:
Beth Anne Sobieszczyk
bethanne@newsociety.com
Ph: 250-383-5863


July 2005
Re: Consideration for Review


Reveals the background – and blowback –
from the first oil currency war

— FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —

Petrodollar Warfare
Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar


William R. Clark
PROJECT CENSORED AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, 2003 and 2005

The invasion of Iraq may well be remembered as the first oil currency war. Far from being a response to 9-11 terrorism or Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, Petrodollar Warfare argues that the invasion was precipitated by two converging phenomena: the imminent peak in global oil production, and the ascendance of the euro currency.

Energy analysts agree that world oil supplies are about to peak, after which there will be a steady decline in supplies of oil. Iraq, possessing the world’s second largest oil reserves, was therefore already a target of U.S. geostrategic interests. Together with the fact that Iraq had switched its oil currency trade to euros — rather than U.S. dollars — the Bush administration’s unreported aim was to prevent further OPEC momentum in favor of the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency standard.

Meticulously researched, Petrodollar Warfare examines U.S. dollar hegemony and the unsustainable macroeconomics of ‘petrodollar recycling,’ pointing out that the issues underlying the Iraq War also apply to geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and other countries including the member states of the European Union (EU), Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. The author warns that without changing course, the American Experiment will end the way all empires end – with military over-extension and subsequent economic decline. He recommends the multilateral pursuit of both energy and monetary reforms within a United Nations framework to create a more balanced global energy and monetary system – thereby reducing the possibility of future oil depletion and oil currency-related warfare.

A sober call for an end to aggressive U.S. unilateralism, Petrodollar Warfare is a unique contribution to the debate about the future global political economy.

About the Author: William Clark has received two Project Censored awards, first in 2003 for his ground-breaking research on the Iraq War, oil currency conflict, and U.S. geostrategy and again in 2005 for his research on Iran’s upcoming euro-denominated oil bourse. (Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories, Seven Stories Press). He is an Information Security Analyst, and holds a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Information and Telecommunication Systems from Johns Hopkins University. He lives near Bethesda, Maryland.

288 pages 6 x 9” Current Affairs / Political Science & Government / Finance
Pb ISBN 0-86571-514-9 US$17.95 / Can$24.95

***

...Here's what others said about this new book (based on the gallery/proof manuscript)...


Advance Praise for Petrodollar Warfare; Oil, Iraq, and the Future of the Dollar

William R. Clark's Petrodollar Warfare is an oracle of our times exposing the hidden geopolitical strategies of the power elite and the interlocking agendas of big oil and the neo-conservatives in power today. Clark is a winner of two Project Censored awards for publishing important news stories ignored by the corporate media in the US.

-- Dr. Peter Phillips, Professor Sociology, Sonoma State University and Director Project Censored


Petrodollar Warfare by William R. Clark is an important contribution to the question what the Iraq war was and is all about. Clark links the emerging Euro currency to Iraq’s pricing of its oil as one significant factor leading to Washington’s decision to topple Saddam Hussein. It might be open for argument whether a ‘Petroeuro’ as a replacement for the ‘Petrodollar’ is likely or not, given the many divisions within the European Union. But Clark’s thorough documentation of the discussion, notably plans for an Iranian Oil Bourse to counter NYMEX and the London IPE, provides a useful basis for further thinking about one of the vital strategic issues of today. Clark also extensively treats the issue of Peak Oil, or global depletion, as a major unspoken factor in the US oil agenda. This book is definitely worth careful reading.

-- F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order


While the economic advantages accruing to American elites from US dollar hegemony have been mostly hidden from view, the impending end of dollar supremacy will affect everyone in obvious, painful ways. In this riveting macro-economic investigation, William Clark guides us through the hidden history of the petrodollar era and deftly uncovers the basis of current US strategy in the Middle East. If you think you understand the headlines, think again: current events can only be understood when we follow the money.
This sobering book not only elucidates our past and present, but shows the way toward global monetary reform. As Clark makes clear, America's founding ideals can only be fulfilled if the people of the US are willing to confront the twin demons of proto-fascism and kleptocracy.

-- Richard Heinberg, author of The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, and Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World


Not only does Petrodollar Warfare give you the big picture of the intertwined world of war, oil, and money, but Clark also provides ideas for change. This book helps to fuel the grassroots engine for progress in America.

-- Jim Hightower, radio commentator and author of Let’s Stop Beating Around the Bush, and Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and its Time to Take it Back


In Petrodollar Warfare, William Clark provides important new insights into the strategic thinking of American leaders. Anyone who seeks a more complex and revealing explanation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other recent US policy initiatives will find this book well worth reading.

-- Dr. Michael T. Klare, author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency, and professor of peace and world security studies, Hampshire College


Back in 1997, when I wrote about M. King Hubbert and Peak Oil in the first edition of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, not many people were aware that we were fast approaching a worldwide energy crisis. Now we're in the middle of two wars over it, as William Clark so brilliantly documents in Petrodollar Warfare. Oil in Euros, deceptions from the White House, wars for profits and political power; it reads like a Ludlum novel. Unfortunately, it may well be altogether too true.

-- Thom Hartmann, author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, and Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights


It is clear to almost all informed observers that both the US and the world are entering new, dangerous, and quite uncharted territory, especially now that questions about global oil supplies have exploded into mainstream prominence. All of this leads to an ever more complex world with no simple explanations, and nowhere is this more true than the tragic interplay between oil, politics, and money. Petrodollar Warfare is therefore to be greatly welcomed, since William Clark's book provides a badly needed, carefully researched explanation of the deep and dark mechanisms underlying international movements of money and military forces. Clark tells the fascinating and distressing story of how America achieved world dominance and looks with tough honesty and realism at what the future might hold. If Petrodollar Warfare's bold analysis can help more Americans to understand the current pathology of their own extraordinary country, then it will assist both the world and America to find a better path into a less violent and energy-addicted future.

-- Julian Darley, founder of Global Public Media and the Post Carbon Institute, author of High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis and Relocalize Now! Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil


I first became aware of William Clark’s writings in the latter part of 2004. I was amazed by his clarity and almost intuitive grasp of economic issues as well as his ability to relate those to everyday life across several disciplines. Watch what this man says. In Petrodollar Warfare, he may be telling us things that we will need to hear for our own survival.

-- Michael C. Ruppert, author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil

***

If interested, this book can be ordered online for quicker delivery:

New Society Publishers
http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3877

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865715149/qid=1121451579/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-7449886-0360761?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I look forward to reading critiques and comments on this subject matter over the coming months, thanks.

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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:24 AM
Response to Original message
1. Sounds interesting. I'll be sure to pick up a copy.

As you can see from my sig line, Peak Oil is a concern of mine and I, along with many others, have wondered how much concerns about Peak Oil along with a perceived need for the US to be able to control world energy supplies have led to the current fiasco in Iraq.
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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:30 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Thanks, I think you might find my book stimulating.
BTW, Chapter III of my book is entreily dedicated to a discussion re Global Peak Oil, and I actually used Matthew's Simmons's full quote (your sig line) on page 88 of my book, just an fyi...
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punpirate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:25 AM
Response to Original message
2. Good. Hope it gets wide notice and...
... good sales.

Cheers, and good luck with it.
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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:33 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Thanks! and ...
...we shall see if this project is "censored" by the coporate media (which is why I keep winning Project Censored awards)...Regardless, I have found my "peace" with the world by writing this book.
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punpirate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:37 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. I've read some of the earlier articles...
... and they make sense.

Cheers.
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Coastie for Truth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 08:51 AM
Response to Original message
6. Just ordered it from Amazon
I am of the Engdahl, Lovins, Ovshinsky, Deffeyes persuasion -- not the Kunstler persuasion. But you got an endorsement from Engdahl ---> that's good enough for me. Good luck.

"The Coastie" -- Semper Paratus

===================================================

By the way, here's a pitch for the latest revision of my opus magnus (actually, I was project officer for the earlier, red bound edition)--->
<>

This later edition was "authored" by Steve Flynn (yes, this Commander Stephen Flynn)--->
<>
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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 09:15 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. Thanks!
I hope later this summer you might provide some critique or comments once you have reviewed the book, and as an fyi, I used Engdahl's research extensively in Chapter 1 (I also thank him in the Acknowledgment section). I'll be mailing him (in Germany) a personalized copy very soon. Anyhow, I hope you find it interesting, and thanks again!
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dcfirefighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-18-05 01:21 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Hey PW, and Coastie
How about a recommended reading list? It's too effin' hot to do much outside. (it's not the heat, it's the humidity)
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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-05 07:46 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Summer reading list?..my 2 cts worth
Well, I do not know what you have read thus far, but if you want my suggestion for 5 or 6 books that I have found enligtening re oil and energy issues, here's my :

Peak Oil:
Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over" (2003) and his follow-up book, "Powerdown" (2004).

Kenneth Deffeyes's "Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert's Peak" (2005)

Matthew Simmons "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Shock and the World Economy" (2005)

For a historical overview of oil and geopolitics:
F. William Engdahl's "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" (updated 2004)

..and for a current macro-economic analysis of these energy and geopolitical issues: "Petrodollar Warfare" (2005)

If you read those 5 or 6 books, you'll know much more than the average person about the current state of the union.
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Coastie for Truth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-05 08:26 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. This is a dramatic overkill reading list
Edited on Tue Jul-19-05 08:34 AM by Coastie for Truth
(it's my personal library - excluding engineering text books). Specific recommendations are bolded


    1) An Introduction to Economic Geology and Its Environmental Impact by Evans (Deffeyes does a good job on the geology, this is an "Intro to Geology for Dummies" level book - found it at the Stanford Univ book store - but an geology book at this level is worthwhile to go beyond Deffeyes)
    2) Beyond Oil : The View from Hubbert's Peak by Ken Deffeyes
    3) Harvard Business Review on Business and the Environment (Articles by Amory Lovins)
    4) Hubbert's Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage by Kenneth Deffeyes
    5) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins (alot of "sustainable economy" material - goes beyond the narrow field of "peak oil")
    6) Out of Gas: The End of the Age Of Oil by Davis Goodstein
    7) The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability by Paul Hawken (one of Lovins' colleagues - if you are into Lovins - or depressed by Kunstler - this is a worthwhile read).
    8) The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century by Kunstler (only because it's so totally Malthusian and so dismissive of technology and so beloved by non-techie progressives; I think Kunstler is both totally incorrect and insufferably arrogant))
    9) Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy by Matthew Simmons
    10) Winning the Oil Endgame by Amory Lovins - A MUST - but don't buy it - get it from your library -- $40.00
    11) A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order... by William Engdahl - also delves into the pre-Balfour background of the I/P Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement and petro-politics.
    12) House of Bush - House of Saud by Craig Unger (This is an Al Franken and Michael Moore recommendation -- if you are a real DUer - you have this book memorized).


I overkill on Lovins because I am a personal friend of his and of Stan Ovshinsky's --- and I am on the Amory Lovins - Paul Hawken - Ken Deffeyes - Stan Ovshinsky side of most "Peak Oil" issues. Contrary to Kunstler, I am a life long techie - and I believe as matter of "techie fauth" and "socialization to the techie norm" that there are techie solutions -- that will involve major life style changes but not Kunstler's return to a "simpler world" with far fewer people ,,,, etc.
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midnight armadillo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. You can download the Amory Lovins book
Winning the oil endgame is available in PDF format for download - poke around the ROcky Mt Institute website enough and you'll find it.
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dcfirefighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-19-05 05:55 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. thanks for the recommendations n/t
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:39 PM
Response to Original message
13. Kick n/t
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Petrodollar Warfare Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-28-05 11:41 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. Table of Contents for Petrodollar Warfare...as an fyi
Thanks JC. Well, for those interested and want to "look inside," this link allows you to read the Table of Contents and the Introduction. I would appreciate any feedback re the Intro, for those who read it...thanks!

http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3877

Look Inside
Review text
Table of contents
Introduction or preface

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