"William Engdahl takes the reader through a history of the oil industry's grip on the world economy. His revelations are startling. Moving from the post-World War I period up to the present day, he shows how oil is - and has always been - the motivating factor in international policy and conflicts." Shedding light on the 1970s oil shocks and the grand strategy of Washington after the end of the Cold War, Engdshi presents a convincing case that geopolitics and oil were behind the collapse of the Soviet Union, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the rise and fall of the Taliban. He reveals evidence to show that the decision to go to war in Iraq was not simply an issue of corporate greed. It was a strategic move to control the world economy for the following half century or more.