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<p><em>A new look at how Henry Kissinger's State Department dealt with the energy crises of the 1970s.</em></p> <div><img alt="kissingerswearingin.jpg" src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/kissingerswearingin.jpg" width="615" height="421" class="mt-image-none" /></div>There are lots of reasons to support energy-technology research and commercialization, if you ask me. There are the climate risks. There are possible economic benefits of creating and selling new technologies. New energy technologies are also a good hedge against the problems that may/will come with the depletion of our existing conventional oil fields. And people all around the developing world could benefit from access to more energy to power lights, water systems, air conditioning, transportation and the like. <div><br /></div><div>But perhaps the reason for supporting new solutions to our old energy problems that gets underplayed most often by green-tech advocates is the role energy plays in shaping world affairs. The easy version of this argument is: OIL WARS! HUGO CHAVEZ! OPEC! The more nuanced story is that our need to extract and consume vast amounts of resources that sit underneath other countries makes things difficult for our diplomats sometimes.</div><div><br /></div><div><!-- START "ENERGY ENTREPRENEURS" BUG CODE v. 1 --><div style="margin: 10px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 0px; width: 184px; float: right; border-top: 1px solid lightgrey; border-bottom: 1px solid lightgrey;"> <!-- The bug image --> <div align="center"> <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/energy-entrepreneurs/"> <img alt="Energy Entrepreneurs bug" src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/front/images/specialreports/energy-entrepreneurs/bug.png" style="margin-bottom: 10px; border: 1px solid lightgrey; padding: 1px;" /></a> </div> <!-- The text/blurb. Edit these lines to change the copy. --> The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal in conversation with industry entrepreneurs shaping our future. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/energy-entrepreneurs"> <b>See full coverage</b> </a> <!-- End text/blurb. --> </div> <!-- END "ENERGY ENTREPRENEURS" BUG CODE v. 1 -->When something goes awry in the relationship between the big-oil producers and the United States (or other powers), all hell breaks loose. In 1973, geopolitical (and perhaps economic) considerations pushed a group of Arab oil producers to decree <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis">an oil embargo</a>. Dealing with the impacts of that decision consumed a big chunk of Henry Kissinger's time at the State Department as detailed in <a href="http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v37/pressrelease">a just-released 1,000-page report from the Office of the Historian at the agency</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>The new monograph reveals in-depth conversation, memoranda, and other primary documents related to State's global program to deal with rising oil prices in an environment our previous policies had already shaped. </div><div><br /></div><div>For example, there are 85 references to the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who the US helped install in power through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax">a coup of the democratically elected leader</a>, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Why'd we throw Mosaddegh out of power? To oversimplify, he tried to nationalize the country's oil industry. Subsequently, the Shah was tossed out during the Iranian revolution, and that's how the country's Islamists came to power. All of this history is a bit too pat, of course, but that's at least the sequence of events. Energy and our foreign policy are permanently entangled. </div><div><br /></div><div>These are the kinds of soft costs (not to mention ethical quandaries) that rarely make it on to the spreadsheets that calculate the price of US dependence on foreign fuel. And I'd only point out that greens have never adequately exploited the national security angles to domestic energy production; perhaps there is something in its bald nationalism that cuts rubs many earth-minded people the wrong way.</div><img width='1' height='1' src='http://Theatlantic.feedsportal.com/c/34375/f/625845/s/2482131e/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://share.feedsportal.com/viral/sendEmail.cfm?lang=en&title=A+1%2C000-Page+Reminder+That+Energy+and+Foreign+Affairs+Can%27t+Be+Untangled&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Ftechnology%2Farchive%2F2012%2F10%2Fa-1-000-page-reminder-that-energy-and-foreign-affairs-cant-be-untangled%2F263654%2F" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=A+1%2C000-Page+Reminder+That+Energy+and+Foreign+Affairs+Can%27t+Be+Untangled&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Ftechnology%2Farchive%2F2012%2F10%2Fa-1-000-page-reminder-that-energy-and-foreign-affairs-cant-be-untangled%2F263654%2F" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/147583929220/u/49/f/625845/c/34375/s/2482131e/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/147583929220/u/49/f/625845/c/34375/s/2482131e/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/147583929220/u/49/f/625845/c/34375/s/2482131e/a2t.img" border="0"/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AtlanticScienceAndTechnology/~4/NUTW7XRRPgM" height="1" width="1"/>
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