The Petroleum Triangle

This book tells the interconnected story of oil, globalization, and terrorism in the contemporary world. Steve A. Yetiv begins by asking how Al-Qaeda, a relatively small band of terrorists, has become a threat viewed as profound enough to motivate the strongest power in world history to undertake extraordinary actions, including two very costly wars. In addressing this complex question, Steve A. Yetiv offers insights into a secondary puzzle: Why has Al-Qaeda been so hard to defeat, despite the major global efforts that have been devoted to this task? Yetiv argues in The Petroleum Triangle that Middle East oil has fueled terrorism by helping to bolster oil-rich regimes that terrorists hate, to fund the terrorist infrastructure, and to generate anti-American and anti-Western sentiments about perceived Western designs on Middle East oil and about support for autocratic oil-rich regimes. Meanwhile, globalization has been critical for terrorist penetration, easing international travel, technological exploitation, fund raising, eluding detection, and heightening the perceived threat of terrorism via mass media. Together, Middle East oil and globalization have combined in various ways to help create and sustain Al-Qaeda's real and perceived threat. A sweeping analysis of contemporary world politics and American foreign and military policy, The Petroleum Triangle convincingly argues that it is critical to understand the connections among oil wealth, globalization, and terrorism if we seek to comprehend modern global politics.