Two new books examine how oil has shaped global politics for over a century. Guy Laron's *Oil Wars* traces fossil fuel geopolitics from the 1850s to the 21st century, arguing that the struggle to control oil arteries defined the modern world. Philip Delves Broughton's *Embargo* focuses on the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which arose from deep-seated resentment toward Western economic mistreatment.
The commercial exploitation of oil began as a search for an industrial lubricant to replace whale blubber, with early wells in Azerbaijan and Pennsylvania. European dynasties like the Nobels and Rothschilds competed with John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil to establish oil as a global commodity. By 1958, US interests owned nearly 64% of global production, but nationalization in the following decades reduced Western dominance.
Laron highlights the 1953 US-UK-backed coup in Iran, which reversed the nationalization of Iranian oil and reshaped regional power dynamics. The book also covers oil’s role in World War II, Middle Eastern interstate conflicts, and wars involving Iraq. Meanwhile, the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran—driven in part by Trump’s stated goal to 'take the oil'—has disrupted global commodity markets, shipping, and household budgets, proving that oil remains a central lever of modern conflict.
Source: Financial Times Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing