Black Gold and Blackmail seeks to explain why great powers adopt such different strategies to protect their oil access from politically motivated disruptions. In extreme cases, such as Imperial Japan in 1941, great powers fought wars to grab oil territory in anticipation of a potential embargo by the Allies; in other instances, such as Germany in the early Nazi period, states chose relatively subdued measures like oil alliances or domestic policies to conserve oil. What accounts for this variation? Fundamentally, it is puzzling that great powers fear oil coercion at all because the global market makes oil sanctions very difficult to enforce. Rosemary A. Kelanic argues that two variables determine what strategy a great power will adopt: the petroleum deficit, which measures how much oil the state produces domestically compared to what it needs for its strategic objectives; and disruptibility, which estimates the susceptibility of a state's oil imports to military interdiction—that is, blockade. Because global markets undercut the effectiveness of oil sanctions, blockade is in practice the only true threat to great power oil access. That, combined with the devastating consequences of oil deprivation to a state's military power, explains why states fear oil coercion deeply despite the adaptive functions of the market. Together, these two variables predict a state's coercive vulnerability, which determines how willing the state will be to accept the costs and risks attendant on various potential strategies. Only those great powers with large deficits and highly disruptible imports will adopt the most extreme strategy: direct control of oil through territorial conquest.

For a state to be at risk of oil coercion, it must have some degree of baseline vulnerability. I hypothesize that three variables determine a state's vulnerability to oil coercion. The first is its degree of dependence on foreign sources of oil. For oil coercion to be effective, the target must depend heavily on foreign sources of petroleum. Second, the target's geography matters greatly, because it affects a coercer's ability to block the flow of oil. Island states are particularly susceptible to military blockade. The third variable is the country's relative power, which determines whether or not the state can protect its supply lines.

They are young and carefree and broke… Femi, a young, black graduate with a 1st class degree in Chemistry, has no long-term ambitions until he meets Jessica Rhodes, a blonde exchange student from San Diego. When they miraculously land two spectacular job offers within the first week of graduation, their bleak honeymoon is transformed into a dream. With a 30-day grace period to accept one offer and a free trip to New York to evaluate the other, they soon find themselves hopping from the skyscrapers of Manhattan to the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, their once-uncertain future dangling over a multi-million dollar cliff-hanger. What they don’t know is that undisclosed details of the deal will drag them to the place where dreams end and nightmares begin. Will their fragile marriage survive the greed, the captivating allure of Black Gold, and that vile, ancient tradition that seeks to determine who should be married and to whom?

Everything you think you know is a lie. Or is it? The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories is the definitive guide to the world's most controversial theories. With updated information on all the most infamous conspiracies, from phony crucifixions to who really did kill JFK, this fully up-dated guide also covers the murders of Alexander Litvinenko and Benasir Bhutto, the London bombings and the Iraq War, as well as the inquest into Princess Diana's death. The guide is a thoroughly researched exploration into this fascinating and, at times, amusing phenomenon, with fascinating discourse and a keen sense of the satirical. For both the believers and the cynics, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories sorts the myths from the realities.

Anne Cartier, a teacher of the deaf, accepts an offer to help a deaf child whose governess died in a fall down the stairs of the family's palatial mansion. Anne suspects the death might not have been an accident and begins to investigate. She is aided by her friend and suitor, Paul de Saint-Martin. They believe the young woman's death may have been the work of renegade French army officer Captain Fitzroy, already accused of a brutal rape in Paris. Fitzroy has found refuge at the mansion with his cousin and intimate friend, Lady Margaret, lady of the house and wife of slaver Sir Harry Rogers. Soon Anne discovers she must protect as well as teach young Charlie. Watching it all is Lord Jeff, a black footman and a bare-knuckle fighter of impressive skill who may win Sir Harry a large purse. But the slave has his own agenda. The abolition of slavery is a hot topic in Bath, a city that draws much of its wealth from that brutal business.

Fully revised and updated, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories sorts the myths from the realities, the allegations from the explanations and the paranoid from the probable. Who might be trying to convince us that climate change is or isn't real? What is the truth behind the death of Osama bin Laden and is he still alive? When did the CIA start experimenting with mind control? Where is the HAARP installation and did it have anything to do with the Japanese tsunami disaster? Why is surveillance in our cities and online so widespread and what are the real benefits? This definitive guide to the world's most controversial conspiracies wanders through a maze of sinister secrets, suspicious cover-ups hidden agendas and clandestine operations to explore all these questions - and many many more. Now available in ePub format.

The fascinating autobiography of a man living in Libya during the years when oil was discovered there. The work he achieved made a huge contribution to the development and transformation that "black gold" brought to the country. Following the tracks of his journey from one oil refinery to another, the reader travels between Fezzan, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica. A natural and vunerable landscape of undeniable intensity is revealed upon the pages, as he passes from locust storms of almost biblical proportions to meeting populations such as the Tuareg, who even today are still cloaked in legend. It is a vivid account of the meeting between East and West.