Blood for oil? Global capital, counter-insurgency and the dual logic of American energy security

Abstract. The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq coupled with the increased

militarisation of international relations as part of the ‘war on terror’ has led to the

development of a ‘blood for oil’ thesis that posits the centrality of oil and the economic

interests of US oil corporations to American intervention in the Third World. This article

argues that this thesis, whilst correct in identifying the importance of energy to US

intervention, is not sufficiently attentive to the dual nature of American resource interventions

whereby the American state seeks not only to ensure US oil supplies but also to maintain

sufficient oil supplies for the global economy as a whole. American intervention is thus driven

by oil to a large extent, but in different ways to those commonly suggested by ‘blood for oil’

theorists. In contrast to this thesis I argue that recent energy security moves to diversify oil

acquisition away from the Middle East towards new areas such as South America, the Caspian

region and Africa continue to be subject to this dual logic. Moreover, counter-insurgency

warfare is increasingly being deployed to insulate oil-rich states from internal pressures which

is in turn having a profound effect on human rights, social justice and state formation in the

global South.