Several developments cause concern about the security of Europe's energy supply: (1) Russia's policies towards countries through which its oil and natural gas transit; (2) Venezuela's and Iran's threats to instrumentalize Western import dependence for political ends; (3) Saudi Arabia's...

The prospect of a military offensive against Iraq puts more than the price of oil into motion. It also causes further-reaching speculations on the extent to which Iraqi oil reserves and production capacities might serve as a motivation for the United States to intervene in Iraq. When Iraq's...

The Kyoto Protocol, the symbol of a global climate protection policy and, since President Bush's brusque termination of U.S. participation in this pact, also a symbol of the rest of the world's ability to act responsibly, is threatening to come to an ignominious end. On 29 September, at the...

There is new hope for climate policy, and at least three events have provided a reason for this hope: The Russian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol enables it to come into force on February 16, 2005. With Tony Blair's G-8 initiative, announced in a forceful speech on September 14, 2004, a...