Foreign Policy Blogs
A regular theme on this blog (here, here, here and here)
is how the marked surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production over the
past several years is reviving America’s strategic prospects. The
energy boom, which is due largely to innovations in extraction
technology – namely, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and horizontal
drilling – that have unlocked gas and oil deposits previously thought
inaccessible within tightly-packed shale rock formations, is a key
geopolitical development already triggering significant global
reverberations. It puts paid to what was just a short time ago widely
held notions about how the country was inexorably depleting its
hydrocarbon energy resources. It also puts a major dent in what many
believe is this era’s mega-narrative – that China’s global preeminence
is all but ordained.
