The Politics of Oil and the Middle East

I agree with Elan that amorphous underspecified views about oil have poisoned American policy in the Middle East I think I'm not a nationalist and I'm a relatively cosmopolitan person but it really does chafe to see American presidents rattling their cup at the Saudis begging for production decisions to go this way. Donald Trump presidency is that he was asking the Saudis to produce less which is a rarity normally we're asking him to produce more. The Saudis are not as stupid as we would have them be they make production decisions not in deference to American diplomatic goals but indeference to their own pockets. US politicians uniquely seem to act as though a certain amount of cajoling can