Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance

In reading the news, the United States and Saudi Arabia often come off as a bewildering mix of neighbors, strangers, enemies, and partners. If you have ever wondered "how, exactly, did we get here?" Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance provides clear and excellent answers.Victor McFarland manages several impressive feats of foreign policy writing. First, this is an engrossing read, with handsome prose sailing through history, economics, backroom scrambles, and public politics. Second, McFarland sustains an exciting air of decision-making on all sides in every era-- we see the motives and interplay of actions small and large, but nothing is cast as inevitable. By recognizing the context and agency of each player, McFarland makes it easier for me, an American reader, to see the remarkable influence of U.S./Saudi relations on the particular realities of American life. Finally, Oil Powers is buoyed by an extraordinary range of research-- declassified documents and contemporary sources deep inside the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, alongside author's interviews with many of the critical figures.The result is a broad and thoughtful perspective, punctuated by insightful examples and lively anecdotes, into a topic that is often glazed over by conflicting interests. I would unreservedly recommend Oil Powers to any curious mind.

Oil Powers is an exciting new book from Victor McFarland that will interest people who study diplomatic history, international relations, the United States, and the Middle East. McFarland hits all the right notes in a work that explains the alliance between two culturally and geographically distinct nations. Rather than following the current historical trend of analysis that decenters the state or uses a global approach, Oil Powers uses a two-national analysis, which gives enough background for people new to the topic while not overwhelming the reader.After reading, it is clear that a hunger for oil is not the only reason that the US works with Saudi Arabia. Rather, shared interests in the US and Middle East have helped bolster an unlikely alliance that has survived a geo-political quagmire and tough domestic approval challenges. With a deep focus on the 1970s, McFarland shows us that the Saudi-US alliance is much deeper than historians have suggested, and something we should continue to pay attention to in the future.