Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

US foreign policy and Oil on the BBC world service

Phill | 10.09.2003 18:59 | No War F15 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | World

Got an email from the BBC world service regarding the airing of the prog.... details below

The programme in question is 'Pipeline Politics', a four-part series
which starts on 15th September. You do not say where in the world you
are located, but if you listen online (via the 'Listen to World Service
Radio' link under the LISTEN TO WORD SERVICE heading on our home page
 http://www.bbcworldservice.com), broadcast times for Europe apply: Mon
0806 GMT, repeated 1306 GMT, 1806 GMT, Tue 0006 GMT, Sun 1906 GMT.

Each programme will also be available on demand for seven days (Mon-Mon)
at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/docu1.shtml

PIPELINE POLITICS

How does America's appetite for oil influence its foreign policy?
While opponents saw the recent war in Iraq as a crude 'oil grab'
designed to give the USA access to the world's second largest reserves,
political leaders in both the USA and Britain have insisted that oil was
not a motive. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the idea as
"nonsense", and President Bush has repeatedly stated that Iraq's oil
belongs to the Iraqi people. In Pipeline Politics, broadcaster and
writer Maurice Walsh takes a considered look at the connections between
oil and US foreign policy.

America now imports more than half of the 22 million barrels of oil it
needs each day to keep its economy on the road. By 2020 forecasts
suggest 70% of its oil needs will be served by overseas suppliers.
Although the oil shocks of the 1970s prompted some efforts to curb oil
use, successive US governments have focused mainly on diversifying oil
supplies: importing oil from as many different parts of the world as
possible.

From President Franklin D Roosevelt's post-World War II
oil-for-protection deal with the Saudi-Arabian Royal Family, Walsh
traces the US effort to guarantee access to the cheap gasoline many
Americans view as their birthright. The series charts the race to open
up a new oil frontier in Azerbaijan, where Washington's diplomatic
muscle has ensured that Caspian oil flows west towards Europe and the
USA, rather than northwards to Russia, or south to Iran.

In Venezuela, the series explores the story of a major oil supplier
whose political leadership has clashed ideologically with Washington.
How comfortable is America when buying its oil from governments of which
it disapproves? And what truth is there in rumours that the USA lent
support to last year's attempted coup in Caracas?

Washington policy researchers are quizzed on plans to privatise Iraq's
oil wealth, while serving and retired US diplomats reflect on
controversial suggestions that oil, so often a cause of conflict around
the world, might be used to promote democracy and stability in the
Middle East. These programmes are a sober attempt to go behind the
conspiracy theories to uncover the role that oil plays in US foreign
policy calculations.

Regards
Audience Relations
BBC World Service

Phill

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech