Journal of International Studies

A mixture of oil, diesel fuel, water and mud sprays as roughnecks wrestle pipe on a True Company oil drilling rig outside Watford, North Dakota, October 20, 2012. Picture taken October 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart America has moved from oil scarcity to oil abundance, and our attitudes need to change in order to keep up. If the  stream  of headlines  and panels is any indication, you’d have to be an idiot to disagree with that claim. So call me stupid, because I just don’t see it. There’s no question that U.S. oil production is booming. The country  has passed  Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest liquid fuels producer and is  now producing  more oil than it imports. The rise in U.S. output, which is poised to continue, is  good news  for the economy and national security. It’s also something that leaders need to adjust to as they develop policy and strategy. But setting production records and passing milestones is fundamentally diff...

The reverberations of the shale energy revolution in the United States, which helped the U.S. surpass Russia to become the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2009 and may result in the U.S. displacing Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer around 2020, are already being felt in China. [1]  The dramatic change in the energy fortunes of the U.S. – the country is poised to shift from a net natural gas importer to a net natural gas exporter by 2020 and its dependence on oil imports is projected to fall from 60 percent in 2005 to 34 percent in 2019 – is also beginning to reshape those of China. [2] One change occurred in September, when the U.S. passed the title of world’s largest  net oil importer, a crown it had worn since the mid-1970s, to China. Five other ways in which the surge in U.S. shale gas and shale oil production is starting to alter China’s energy landscape are discussed below. 1. It has generated enormous interest in China about whether the U.S....

The United States is entering an era of oil and gas abundance. Its new resources will increase U.S. energy security, but they may also undermine climate security—as fossil fuel combustion increases, so too does global warming. Unless Washington enacts a plan to simultaneously advance its competing energy and climate security objectives, it risks squandering the benefits of its new resources and suffering the disastrous effects of climate change. Key Themes New technologies have unlocked vast reserves of fossil fuels in the United States. This abundance will improve U.S. energy security by providing the country with reliable, affordable access to the resources required to meet its development needs. Fossil fuels like those now accessible in the United States account for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are already at alarming levels and will rise further if Washington develops its new resources without reference to their consequences ...