The New Great Game: The Decline of the West & The Struggle for Middle Eastern Oil

Filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau presents a worrisome first-person report from the deck of the oil tanker Progress (a somewhat ironic name in the circumstances) as it negotiates pirate-infested sea lanes off Somalia, an area plagued by political upheaval and uncertainty. The United States' naval forces have inherited from Britain the questionable role of would-be world-policeman, guarding the Mideast oil fields (although for interviewee Noam Chomsky, U.S. intervention is nothing but imperialism, whitewashed) amidst the semi-anarchy of “failed states” in northern Africa. Another formidable challenger in the high-stakes oil game is a nuclear-capability-seeking Iran, cultivating followers and allies among local Islamic rebellions of the so-called Arab Spring, which threaten the teetering pro-Western governments, corrupt regimes, and sheikdoms throughout the region. And, of course, there is the game-changing manufacturing colossus China, with its own economic chokehold on the West rivaling that of OPEC. The New Great Game paints a less-than-hopeful picture of a balkanized region in which even superpower America—overextended and weary with two regime-change wars—may prove impotent when it comes to helping maintain stability. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)