Michael T. Klare

Michael Klare, author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil, will present his newest book,Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, a look at the geopolitical impact of an unprecedented demand on the peaking supply of oil.

Harvard Book Store is pleased to host defense analyst for The Nation, MICHAEL T. KLARE to discuss how the world's diminishing sources of energy are radically changing the international balance of power.

Recently, an unprecedented Chinese attempt to acquire the major American energy firm Unocal ... (more)was blocked by Congress amidst warnings of a Communist threat. But the political grandstanding missed a larger point: the takeover bid was a harbinger of a new structure of world power, based not on market forces or on arms and armies but on the possession of vital natural resources.

Surveying the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape, Michael Klare, the preeminent expert on resource geopolitics, forecasts a future of surprising new alliances and explosive danger. World leaders are now facing the stark recognition that all materials vital for the functioning of modern industrial societies (not just oil and natural gas but uranium, coal, copper, and others) are finite and being depleted at an ever-accelerating rate. As a result, governments, rather than corporations, are increasingly spearheading the pursuit of resources. In a radically altered world—where Russia is transformed from battered Cold War loser to arrogant broker of Eurasian energy, and the United States is forced to compete with the emerging “Chindia” juggernaut—the only route to survival on a shrinking planet, Klare shows, lies in international cooperation.

To offer insight into the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape, Michael Klare, Director, Five College Program in Peace & World Security Studies, and Defense Correspondent, The Nation, discusses his new book Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet. Klare has written extensively ... (more)on U.S. defense policy, the arms trade, global resource politics, and world security affairs. He is also the author of thirteen books, including Blood and Oil and Resource Wars.

Free for members, $15 for non-members, $5 for students