Word: gas
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From the moment President Barack Obama took office, he has emphasized the importance of dealing with climate change. He's said that the right way to do it is to pass congressional legislation that would cap greenhouse-gas emissions. But eight months after the House of Representatives passed a cap-and-trade bill, similar legislation remains mired in the Senate, its chances of passage dimming by the day. With midterm elections not far off - threatening serious losses in Democratic seats in Congress - it's reasonable to wonder whether the carbon-capping bill will ever become...
...isolating Beijing earlier this month, it was clear the diplomatic game had changed, and not in China's favor. Beijing had always had a partner in pushing back against the West's desire for tough sanctions against Iran: Moscow. The Russians don't need Tehran's oil and gas, but they have significant economic interests in Iran, and Vladimir Putin, much more than Hu Jintao & Co., had very much been in the business of sticking a thumb in the eye of the U.S. whenever he could (the default position of pretty much any ex-KGB officer worth his salt). (Read...
...panic, finger-pointing and schadenfreude that has ensued, though, it's easy to forget that the gulf is more than just Dubai. Neighborhood rivals - some of them much wealthier than Dubai thanks to much bigger oil and gas deposits - have emerged from the financial crisis in better shape than their badly bruised neighbor. The gulf region is poised not only to recover from the global slump this year, but could become the second most important center of world economic growth after the economies of east and south Asia, according to John Sfakianakis, chief economist for Banque Saudi Fransi in Riyadh...
...helps that Qatar sits on a massive natural gas field. The country is the world's third largest producer of natural gas, behind Russia and Iran and, with a population of just 1.5 million, has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. That wealth has allowed Qatar's rulers to chart a pragmatic and flexible foreign policy that has them making friendly with Iran and Syria while hosting American military forces. Now the country wants to become a regional cultural and media hub. Last year Qatar hosted a version of the Tribeca Film Festival, while private investors...
Still, Qatar insists it is not trying to become the next Dubai. Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar's ruler, doesn't want to make his country a global capital, so much as use his nation's gas resources to move what was once a tribal, Bedouin society into the modern world with Muslim culture and values intact. Qatar, say state officials, will never try to do the kind of high-volume business that put Dubai on the map but also made it so vulnerable to a speculative bubble. "Dubai is all about numbers and bringing in huge infrastructure...