The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America's Grasp

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The love-hate relationship between the MI-6 and CIA is an interesting dimension. Cumming knows his stuff well. As one born in 1943, I remember many things about that time vividly: how in grade school we were instructed that, in the case of a warning siren or sudden flash of light, we were to kneel next to our desks and cover our heads; riding in the family car in the early 1950s and peering closely at a small house we were passing, hoping to get a glimpse of the mysterious person – a “communist” – that my father said lived there; and fearing, one beautiful autumn afternoon in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, that we were on the brink of a nuclear war. The country needed a strong, decisive leader, and it got one. Putin had risen from obscure KGB agent to President of the Federation in an ascension whose speed was unprecedented in Russian politics.

How the massive power shift in Russia threatens the political dominance of the United States There is a new cold war underway, driven by a massive geopolitical power shift to Russia that went almost unnoticed across the globe. In The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America’s Grasp, energy expert Marin Katusa takes a look at the ways the western world is losing control of the energy market, and what can be done about it. Russia is in the midst of a rapid economic and geopolitical renaissance under the rule of Vladimir Putin, a tenacious KGB officer turned modern-day tsar. Understanding his rise to power provides the keys to understanding the shift in the energy trade from Saudi Arabia to Russia. This powerful new position threatens to unravel the political dominance of the United States once and for all. Discover how political coups, hostile takeovers, and assassinations have brought Russia to the center of the world’s energy market Follow Putin’s rise to power and how it has led to an upsetting of the global balance of trade Learn how Russia toppled a generation of robber barons and positioned itself as the most powerful force in the energy market Study Putin’s long-range plans and their potential impact on the United States and the U.S. dollar If Putin’s plans are successful, not only will Russia be able to starve other countries of power, but the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) will replace the G7 in wealth and clout. The Colder War takes a hard look at what is to come in a new global energy market that is certain to cause unprecedented impact on the U.S. dollar and the American way of life. The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America’s Grasp by Marin Katusa – eBook Details To mark the anniversary, we’re sharing some of our latest history titles on the Cold War for you to explore, share, and enjoy. We have also granted free access to selected chapters, for a limited time, for you to dip into. 1. The Cold War: A Very Short Introductionby Robert J. McMahon Alex Guinness in the 1959 adaptation of Our Man in Havana, directed by Carol Reed. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/COLUMBIA Ah, la Guerra Fría!!! … ese conflicto que pareciera fácil de definir pero que entre más se estudia más complicado y enrevesado se torna, incluso más que las conflagraciones directas. Para quienes nacimos antes de la década de los 90 puede parecer incluso una colisión lo bastante vívida en nuestra memoria, con imágenes que aún se mantienen frescas de la caída del muro de Berlín o los bombardeos en Sarajevo durante las guerras yugoslavas. Y es que incluso la Guerra Fría es un fantasma que se mantiene muy presente hoy en día, 32 años después que Gorbachov y Bush – padre- le dieran punto final en un barco soviético anclado en la isla de Malta en 1989. Basta con ver las noticias internacionales para encontrarnos con el Ejército Ruso apostado en la frontera con Ucrania por ese irresuelto conflicto de 2014 en el Dombás o con la decisión del gobierno de los Estados Unidos para desclasificar 1.491 archivos relacionados con el asesinato del presidente John F. Kennedy en 1963; todos estos asuntos cuya raíz se encuentra en lo profundo de la Guerra Fría.Read: Velvet Revolutions 7. Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippielandby Juliane Fürst

Perhaps not surprisingly, I am appreciating Tom Clancy's books quite a bit differently now that I have a much richer knowledge of his setting. It was not a conscious decision to take advantage of this, but I did happen to reread Hunt for Red October shortly after this, and my family also gifted me Sontag's also excellent (albeit much more narrowly focused) Blind Man's Bluff that also happens to tie in very well. Stalin had refused to agree to North Korea’s wish to invade South Korea, what Westad calls “an entirely avoidable war” which “devastated a country and enchained a people” might not have happened; It is fascinating to think about how the world might have been different if Gorbachev had decided not to take his annual vacation in Crimea in August 1991. Would there have been a coup at all, or would he have been able to put it down and steer the Soviet into a democratic coalition of independent republics? Would they have been part of the EU now? Would there be Putin, or even Donald Trump? Odd Arne Westad does a great job of making this narrative of contemporary history accessible and engaging. It is not an easy task to map time, place and people and cover everything that deserves a place, but he does a fabulous job. if you're even slightly interested in history, this should be in your reading list. An admirably lucid and comprehensive account of the nuclear-armed stand-off – its origins and causes, its end and what happened in between. Elegantly written for the general reader, it is an essential introduction.

The main character is Thomas Kell, who has appeared before in the author's A Foreign Country and is an experienced and well regarded but tainted SIS senior operative, who is languishing outside the service on unpaid leave and trying to find a return route to his profession after some adventures in the aforementioned book. Along the way Kell does some globe-trotting, goes “under-cover”, meets his CIA nemesis, smokes many a cigarette and falls in love with a much younger woman – who happens to be the above dead spy’s daughter. (This last bit at times stretching credibility.) He’s also manipulated constantly by “C” – mostly by keeping him in the dark – each and every step of the way. This is so pervasive that the unpredictability becomes predictable less than halfway through the book. And Kell’s continuous Charlie Brown gullibility – through two books now – when it comes to his boss – somewhat of a head scratcher.

The Cold War dominated international life from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But how did the conflict begin? Why did it move from its initial origins in post-war Europe to encompass virtually every corner of the globe? And why, after lasting so long, did the war end so suddenly and unexpectedly? Robert McMahon considers these questions and more, as well as looking at the legacy of the Cold War and its impact on international relations today. However, despite the book's overall even-handedness, it is still written from a certain (implicitly social democratic) Western perspective, which influences the narrative somewhat, perhaps downplaying the barbarity of imperialism at times. Fourthly, and more to the point of the book's premise, I agree with 95% of Marin Katusa's premise, assessment, and warning. His energy, financial, and foreign policy arguments are VERY WELL researched and explained and very compelling. He has put his finger on the pulse of our future and found it to be weak and thready under our current economic/political condition.

He's still dangerous, but it's impossible to counter the danger if you don't know what it is. And you can't know what it is if you don't understand what Putin's trying to do. That describes most Americans, whether in or out of politics. The precipitating event in A Colder War is the death – in a plane crash - of the lead British spy in Turkey. This deadly event coinciding with several blown ops and “C” smells a rat/mole. (The late head of station in Turkey was also “C’s” lover, so there is a personal exposure she needs to cover much like in A Foreign Country.) So our hero is called in to investigate; he connects the dots and the mole hunt begins. Due to the immense amount of material, he can't quite get as detailed in his characterization as a more tightly focused work such as Tuchman's excellent Guns of August, and by the nature of how the conflict actually played out, it does end more with a whimper than a bang, but there's enough detail and color to make each chapter compelling, and indeed I found it a book that was very difficult to put down.

I couldn’t have enjoyed this book any more if I’d tried. Believe me. If you’ve ever been a fan of, or even ever heard someone say they’ve been a fan of the classic Spy Fiction writers, then this is for you - and them. Putin has accomplished everything by exploiting the economics and geopolitics of energy. Now he's ready to turn his country's newfound clout against a Western alliance that is totally unprepared for him because it doesn’t understand him.

Starting out as a mathematics professor, Katusa left academics to apply his models to portfolio management. His funds are among the top-performing in the resource sector over the last five years in Canada. He’s a regular contributor to the Business News Network (BNN), and has been interviewed by global media outlets such as CNBC, RT, CBC, Bloomberg, and Forbes.