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The Cost of Dependence on Foreign Fossil Fuel

By Eric McErlain
Here's Max Boot:
Of the top 14 oil exporters, only one is a well-established liberal democracy — Norway. Two others have recently made a transition to democracy — Mexico and Nigeria. Iraq is trying to follow in their footsteps. That's it. Every other major oil exporter is a dictatorship — and the run-up in oil prices has been a tremendous boon to them.

My associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ian Cornwall, calculates that if oil averages $71 a barrel this year, 10 autocracies stand to make about $500 billion more than in 2003, when oil was at $27. This windfall helps to squelch liberal forces and entrench noxious dictators in such oil producers as Russia (which stands to make $115 billion more this year than in 2003) and Venezuela ($36 billion). Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez can buy off their publics with generous subsidies and ignore Western pressure while sabotaging democratic developments from Central America to Central Asia.

The "dictatorship dividend" also subsidizes Sudan's ethnic cleansing (it stands to earn $4.7 billion more this year than in 2003), Iran's development of nuclear weapons ($45 billion) and Saudi Arabia's proselytization for Wahhabi fundamentalism ($149 billion). Even in such close American allies as Kuwait ($35 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($36 billion), odds are that some of the extra lucre will find its way into the pockets of terrorists.
As I've repeated more times than I can count, we are running a similar risk of developing the same sort of relationship with nations that have large reserves of natural gas. Why do we need to repeat that mistake?

Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer.

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Comments

Matthew66 said…
Paul, I admire your devotion to libertarianism. I would, however, point out that no political system has a monopoly on either virtue or vice. The typical argument against democracy is that of Aristotle, that democracy killed Socrates. I would question whether ancient Greek "democracy" could be compared to a modern democracy, but in any event I could cite examples of grave injustices inflicted under most forms of government, for example: the racist policies of the US prior to the civil rights movement (your beloved constitutional republic), the racist immigration and other policies of Australia prior to 1972 (constitutional monarchy), etc. I could also point to dictatorships or virtual dictatorships where individual freedom is exercised, although mostly within limits.

From my own personal experience of having lived in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, I have found I had a greater actual right to privacy in Australia and NZ (both constitutional monarchies with democratic institutions) than the USA (a constitutional republic with democratic institutions) and much less intrusion of the government into my private life in those two countries. E.g. in Australia, financial institutions may not exchange very much information about my credit history, all they may swap is credit inquiries and bad events such as defaulting on payment or bankruptcy. In the US, the credit bureaus track how much I am spending each month on my credit cards, versus my credit limit, as well as inquiries and bad events. E.g. In NY city, I am required to provide a notarized affadavit each year advising the city who lives in my apartment, no Australian or NZ government has ever required this of me.

I am not saying one system is better or worse than the other, one has to weigh the pros and cons of each, but no political system has a monopoly on virtue or vice.
May 4, 2006 at 10:16 AM
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