Since the crumbling of the Iron Curtain and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, our leaders championed a New World Order.  Hamas’s barbaric attack has many wondering if our leadership has instead delivered a “New World Disorder.”

Commentators blame the U.S. blundering in and out of wars in the Mideast: Libya, Iraq, and the dismal Afghanistan withdrawal.  Appeasement of Iran by the Obama and Biden administrations, together with Trump’s “curious affection for autocrats,” are catalogued as causes of our unraveling world.  Seldom mentioned is the abrupt decline of the U.S. oil and gas industry. 

The greatest geostrategic change during the early 21st century was the U.S. ascendance as an energy superpower.  Two presidents share responsibility for this extraordinary development.  In 2008, gasoline prices were at near record levels.  Citing climate change, the Obama administration initially suggested that high prices were acceptable, promising even higher prices in the future.  Polling revealed this to be politically suicidal.  For the remainder of his two terms, President Obama let the shale revolution proceed unhindered.  American companies dramatically improved the industry’s efficiency.  Oil and natural gas production climbed steadily, keeping prices stable.  Meanwhile, President Obama assuaged the climate lobby with measures like substantially higher fleet mileage standards.

After 2016, Trump turbocharged the shale revolution.  Production skyrocketed, and prices for gasoline dropped dramatically as the U.S. became a major exporter of oil.

The shale revolution transformed the national security landscape in our favor.  Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia no longer had their accustomed leverage over other countries.  Appreciating shale’s impending impact, the mullahs were willing to negotiate with President Obama in the last year of his presidency.  By the middle of Trump’s term, America was an energy superpower.  The U.S. applied crippling sanctions against Iran, curtailing the Islamic nation’s ability to foment chaos around the world.

Theodore Roosevelt liked to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”  Similarly, Trump often stroked the egos of individual autocrats while wielding the “big stick” of energy dominance.

When President Biden assumed office in January 2021, there were few major conflicts in the world.  The president assured the nation that he would deliver us from COVID.  He proclaimed that climate change was the greatest threat to world peace.  The new president issued a highly symbolic order canceling the nearly completed Keystone XL pipeline.  Rapid-fire measures to hamstring the petroleum industry soon followed.

When Russia invaded Ukraine a year later, President Biden was confident that sanctions similar to those used by Trump so effectively against Iran would bring a quick end to the conflict.  After over a year and a death toll in the hundreds of thousands, it is clear that sanctions cannot work without American energy dominance.  Energy weakness also allowed Iran to evade previously effective sanctions to orchestrate the horrific Hamas attack on Israel. 

The surest way to address the chaos enveloping the world is to rebuild America as an energy superpower.  If President Biden sincerely wants to help Israel, he will persuade his party’s activists that world chaos and possible nuclear war are a far greater threat to humanity than climate change.  A good symbolic first act would be an executive order to complete the Keystone pipeline.

Image: lalabell68 via Pixabay, Pixabay License.