Henry Jackson Society courts corporate, political power to advance a distinctly illiberal oil and gas agenda in Mideast
Last week, I wrote about the expansion of the American right-wing website Breitbart News Network into the UK, a prime example of the converging forces of climate denialism, fossil fuel addiction, and xenophobia. The editorial marriage between Breitbart London’s James Delingpole and Raheem Kassam gives us useful insight into this perturbing mind-set as it attempts to popularise itself in the British media scene.
But Breitbart is merely one strand in the growing neocon web. At its heart is a nexus of power reaching into the recesses of not just the US and UK governments, but the financial services and fossil fuel industries that lobby them.
" a ‘forward strategy’ to assist those countries that are not yet liberal and democratic to become so. This would involve the full spectrum of our ‘carrot’ capacities, be they diplomatic, economic, cultural or political, but also, when necessary, those ‘sticks’ of the military domain."
"It is not ‘imperialism’ to want to stop the carnage in Syria wrought by Assad’s killing machine or to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East through an Iranian nuclear weapon. That is humanitarian concern. And we do not advocate re-drawing boundaries through Western intervention, or promoting democracy by force, so again this is a mischaracterisation of our position."
"Since the discovery of the first significant oil field in Persia in 1908 Middle Eastern oil has been central to the world’s energy needs. Over the past 105 years MENA [Middle East and North Africa] countries have been invaded, coups implemented, politicians overthrown and wars undertaken in order to gain access to and protect oil. Today with MENA accounting for 57.8% of global oil reserves the threats and challenges to the region are just as present as ever."
" despite the political events in the region, the oil and gas sector will benefit from continuing to operate as an enclave industry, something it is often highly criticised for, and overall remains distanced from political events."