Crude Awakenings: Global Oil Security and American Foreign Policy. By Stephen A. Yetiv. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. 256p. $35.00.

Steve Yetiv's central argument is that oil stability has improved in recent years in the sense that the market is resilient, enjoying a self-reinforcing equilibrium by its ability to deter, mitigate, and contain threats to supplies. The author explicitly distinguishes oil supply stability from oil price stability, as oil prices have become more volatile while supply volumes have stabilized. Implicitly, he argues that price flexibility stabilizes supplies and that the world oil market has become more competitive and less rigid, so that relations between oil exporters and importers have become more pragmatic and less politicized. Attention is on the physical availability of oil: Disruptions are unlikely, not on oil prices or their impact on incomes, inflation rates, and trade balances, but historically, oil has always been available in the world market, at a price. The book would have benefited from a more systematic elaboration of the key argument, early on. He examines the oil market from the perspective of international relations, emphasising the projection of U.S. military power in the Middle East.