How cheap energy from shale will reshape America's role in the world

Guardian: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of China and the Arab spring, American energy independence looks likely to trigger the next great geopolitical shift in the modern world. US reliance on the Gulf for its oil – and its consequent need to maintain a dominant presence in the Middle East to keep the oil flowing – has been one of the constants of the post-1945 status quo. That could be turned on its head. It's been dubbed "the homecoming". After decades in which the hollowing out of American...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/15/shale-energy-implications-geopolitics-america
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/GU_front_gifs/2012/11/15/1353006495934/An-Iraqi-policeman-shouts-012.jpg