Trump's Love for American Oil and the Fuel of Disruption

He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality.

- RANJAN TANDON

—Anwar Sadat, Former President of Egypt and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Energy is back on center stage as Republicans trump the race to the White House. To re-assert America's dominance on the oil frontier, the president has tacitly challenged OPEC's prerogative as he seeks to ramp up production. Oil has orchestrated political symphonies for a very long time and still does.

The oil embargo of 1973 made the US privy to their energy vulnerability due to reliance on imported oil. The need to break up OPEC or neutralize its clout over oil markets was an 'option' way back in January 1974 when James Schlesinger, US Secretary of Defence, conveyed hints of 'military intervention as a last resort'. A year later, in January 1975, in a press interview, Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under President Gerald Ford, repeated the hint at 'using force' to disrupt 'order' in the Persian Gulf. Arab leaders threatened to blow up the oil fields in such an eventuality. Fortunately, neither of the delinquencies occurred.