elections

Di Marzio Galeotti

Più o meno nel momento in cui Barack Obama cominciava il suo primo mandato presidenziale e la crisi finanziaria investiva l’intera economia, nel mondo dell’energia avveniva un fatto che ha segnato un’epoca, la “shale revolution”, destinata a cambiare la geopolitica dell’energia in maniera forse permanente. Nel periodo 2008-2014 la produzione statunitense di petrolio è passata da 5 milioni di barili/giorno (mbd) a quasi 9, ma mentre quella convenzionale è rimasta invariata quella da “tight oil” è passata da 1 a 4 mbd. Entro un paio d’anni gli USA supereranno Russia ed Arabia Saudita per riprendersi il titolo di primo produttore mondiale ceduto negli anni ’80. (...)

Di Matthew Wilson

As President Obama enters his last full year in office, his supporters and critics alike have begun to debate his legacy, seeking to shape the first-draft assessment of “the Obama years.” President Obama has been one of the most polarizing figures in recent American political history, so it is no surprise that judgements of his domestic policy accomplishments diverge sharply along partisan and ideological lines. Even many of his supporters, however, would acknowledge that his domestic policy accomplishments will in many areas fall frustratingly short of the aspirations that they had on his historic election in 2008. (...)

Di Walter Russell Mead

President Obama’s final State of the Union address comes at a time when, for the first time in his administration, the public believes that the nation’s most serious problems involve foreign policy rather than domestic issues, the majority disapproves of the President’s handling of foreign affairs, and 73 percent say they want the next President to take a “different approach” to foreign policy. President Obama, for his part, remains deeply committed to his approach to foreign affairs, is determined to continue on his current course through the end of his mandate, and wants a new kind of foreign policy to be part of the political legacy of his administration. (...)