Blood Oil

Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules That Run the World

De: Leif Wenar

Narrado por: Kevin Stillwell

Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Autocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West - and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the gas station and the mall.

In this sweeping new book, one of today's leading political philosophers, Leif Wenar, goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that thwarts democracy and development - and that puts shoppers into business with some of today's most dangerous men. Listeners discover a rule that once licensed the slave trade and apartheid and genocide, a rule whose abolition has marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet a rule that still enflames tyranny and war and terrorism through today's multitrillion-dollar resource trade. Blood Oil shows how the West can now lead a peaceful revolution by ending its dependence on authoritarian oil and by getting shoppers out of business with the men of blood. The book describes practical strategies for upgrading world trade: for choosing new rules that will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve pressing global problems like climate change. This book shows citizens, consumers, and leaders how we can act together today to create a more united human future.

©2016 Oxford University Press (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Thought Provoking

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in global justice. I think I'll be buying it for some people...

HEAVY but practcal! How western nations are cursed

when buying stolen resources from authoritarian rulers; how & why we must stop. A must Read!

Caveat: Human beings -- Totally untrustworthy

This book is a thorough primer on world affairs. It clarified a lot of things for me with brilliant examples and tidbits, particularly about our relationship with the Saudi Kingdom and other such states.

However, in my jaded view, conflict and war is part of our DNA like water and salt. We humans will never change and will always find something to quarrel about. The book demonstrates this human pitfall in its discussions regarding alternative solutions. ...
Better technology and upheaval because of new technology is most often the driver of social progress and setbacks. For example the abolition of slavery and the American Civil War was an industrial vs agrarian conflict. (And it can be argued that the freeing of the slaves was Lincoln's version of Truman dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) In the case that the author cited, the abolition of the slave trade by England, it is noted that the TRADE of slaves was abolished but NOT SLAVERY itself. For tactical reasons, the abolitionist in England believed that slavery itself would wither away on its own, which was true enough. Industrialization and the replacement of brute manpower with machine power, however, was the ultimate driver (i.e., better profits).
Likewise, alternative fuels or even lifestyles might ultimately cure our dependency on oil; provided, the powers that be allows us to go forward with these alternative lifestyles. Yes, allow --the forces of commercialism and the constant brainwashing are difficult to overcome even by the fiercest of romantics. ...
Enters shale oil --and its taxing horrors on the eco-systems of the states involved, Pennsylvania, upstate New York and other bucolic scenes throughout the United States and Canada and the Americas-- to carry the day until science, our hero, sneaks one in and breaks the spell. ...

Informative, repetitive

The book had the longest intro ever. Once through the 4 hours of introduction, the book moved along repeating itself regularly and quickly lost my intetest. I powered through anyway, fast forwarding to the best of my ability when recovering the same topic. Again and again.

Eye opening concepts

This collection of ideas and historical evidence will change how you see world events from now on. What political parties don't want us to know.