Biographical note: Brenda Shaffer served as Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University from 2000 to 2006. She currently teaches political science at the University of Haifa.

A Prelude to the Foundation of Political Economy is a groundbreaking volume of theory and strategy on political economy and polity of the twenty-first century. Distilled in concrete terms, it elucidates the enigma of oil in view of the centrality of global social relations.

Introduction -- The end of the commodity super-cycle -- Binding carbon constraints -- An electric future -- The US: the lucky country -- The Middle East: more trouble to come -- Russia: blighted by the resource curse -- China: the end of the transition -- Europe: not as bad as it seems -- The...