Blood oil

Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Authoritarians like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and the Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades, resource-fueled autocrats 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. Blood oil goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with these men of blood. Readers discover the ancient legal rule that once licensed the slave trade and colonialism, apartheid and genocide: the brutal rule of "might makes right." The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs—yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords, and terrorists worldwide. By our own deepest principles, might cannot make right. Therefore, today most of the world's traded oil is stolen oil. Blood Oil shows how the West can lead a peaceful global revolution by ending its dependence on the authoritarians who are stealing their countries' oil, and by getting out of business with the militias who are plundering their countries' minerals. Leading with a strategy of integrity to upgrade world trade will make us more secure at home and more trusted abroad; it will detoxify our politics and make us better able to solve urgent problems like climate change. Blood Oil shows how citizens, consumers, and leaders can act today to avert tomorrow's crises—and how we can together create a more united human future.