In Gabon, it was known as “the Bongo system.” For 41 years, Omar Bongo ruled Gabon and stole its oil revenues. As the Times explains, the system consisted of “forsaking ...
Blog
Crude, the Documentary
A chapter of my book (publication is a week from today) focuses on a multi-billion dollar environmental lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador. Joe Berlinger, director of the incomparable “Brother’s Keeper” and “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” has just released his documentary ...
An Excerpt of Crude World
The September issue of Foreign Policy includes an excerpt from Crude World. The issue just hit the newstands and has been posted online, too. (I’ve also ...
Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil
Foreign Policy
September 8, 2009
Across the globe, oil is invoked as an agent of destiny. Oil will make you rich, oil will make you poor, oil will bring war, oil will deliver peace, oil will shape our world as much as the glaciers did in the Ice Age.
But how?
Oil is not a machine that can be disassembled ...
A Cover Story
A while back my editor at Knopf, Jon Segal, showed me a proposed cover for Crude World. I really liked some elements of the design but other things didn’t work for me. So what to do? Knopf would not use a cover I didn’t approve of, but Jon reminded me that Knopf had a bit more experience ...
Hey, Good Looking!
No, I’m not talking about you, though I’m sure you’re good looking, too. I’m talking about this website, which has been redesigned to focus on Crude World. Please go ahead and rummage through the revised site, which looks fantastic (I know, I’m biased). The wonderful Andrew Hearst ...
Section Fronts and Sidebars
Every unhappy oil-producing nation is unhappy in its own way, but all are touched by oil’s power to worsen existing problems and create new ones. Crude World explores the troubled world oil has created–from Saudi Arabia to Iraq, Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela and beyond. The book features ...
All Things FCPA
Several chapters of Crude World delve into oil corruption, and that means I have spent an unhealthy amount of time looking into prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices ...
Cursed by Oil?
Today’s New York Times offers not one but two stories about oil and power. The first, on the front page, delves into Iran and the ways the Revolutionary Guards have become, as the article says, ...
More on Crude World
I understand the risk of over-saturating this blog with PR for my new book … but I can’t resist. What follows are a few words of praise that will appear on the dust cover of Crude World when it ...