How oil is destabilising Iraq

"Oil looks set to be a destabilising influence on Iraq's future", Greg Muttitt's recent book Fuel on the Fire, about Iraqi oil policy since 2003, concludes soberly. See my review published in International Affairs here and more on Muttitt's high-quality research here.

Russo-Ukrainian tensions rise over gas contracts

The war of words between Moscow and Kyiv over gas prices has intensified again, and they could remain at loggerheads throughout the winter. The dispute could even hasten measures in Ukraine to diversify supply and improve energy efficiency. Read more here.

My favourite books on Putin's Russia ...

... are a Berezovsky biog, a collection on oil and gas economics, a classic on car workers and their unions, a world-systems-theory take on the Caucasian intelligentsia, and a war memoir. That's what I told the nice people from The Browser who called up and interviewed me - see here.