Misguided “Oil Scarcity Ideology” Has Distorted US National Security Policy

The “peak oil” fallacy is not new; in fact it has long inflicted real harm in the geopolitical sphere despite persistent evidence of its falsity. Roger Stern, Research Assistant Professor of Energy at the University of Tulsa’s Collins College of Business, describes in a new PESD working paper how “oil scarcity ideology” influenced US national security policy in profoundly detrimental ways from 1909 to 1980.