Relying on a rich cache of previously classified notes, transcripts, cables, policy briefs, and memoranda, Andrew Cooper explains how oil drove, even corrupted, American foreign policy during a time when Cold War imperatives still applied, and tells why in the 1970s the U.S. switched its Middle East allegiance from the Shah of Iran to the Saudi royal family. Amid the oil shocks of the early 1970s, there was one man the U.S. could rely on: the Shah of Iran. The Shah sold us oil; we sold him weapons. But the U.S. and other industrialized economies could not tolerate repeated annual double digit increases in oil prices. During the 1976 election campaign, President Gerald Ford decided that he had to find a country that would break the OPEC monopoly and sell the U.S. oil more cheaply. On the advice of Treasury Secretary William Simon -- and against the advice of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger -- Ford made a deal to sell advanced weaponry to the Saudis in exchange for a more moderate price hike in oil. The Shah's economy was destabilized, and disaffected elements mobilized to overthrow him. The U.S. had embarked on a long relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues to this day.

本作は冷戦期の舞台裏で繰り広げられた、権力と裏切りの叙事詩です。著者は機密文書に魂を吹き込み、単なる外交史を一級の人間ドラマへと昇華させました。イランからサウジへ傾斜する合衆国の冷徹な打算は、国家の命運を弄ぶ美学すら感じさせ、読者を戦慄させます。 見どころは、高官たちの暗闘と、夢に破れる国王の悲劇性が交錯する重層的な筆致にあります。エネルギーという実利が、いかにして現代の中東という迷宮を築いたのか。圧倒的な迫力で暴かれる地政学の深淵は、知的好奇心を激しく揺さぶり、読後も消えない衝撃を刻み込むでしょう。