US not dependent on the Middle-East for its oil needs: Walter Russell Mead

CHENNAI: A US academician today claimed that contrary to perception, America was not dependent on the Middle-East for its oil needs and it only believed in bringing the commodity out of the realms of geo-politics and making it an economic issue to ensure stability.

Walter Russell Mead, the James Clark Chase Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College in US, said his country was a global power and "there is no part that America has not been active in some way."

"Some people say America is just trying to take the oil (in the Middle-East). People think of America as global Dracula sucking the oil. The reality is US doesn't need the middle eastern oil for ourselves. Our oil supply comes from our country, Canada, western hemisphere countries but almost no oil from the Middle-East (is received)," he told reporters here.

Also an author, Mead said that US "cared about the oil," only to ensure some country in the region did not hold the world's economy hostage by interrupting oil supply as countries including India and China look up to the region for their energy needs.

"Historically when we have many many countries competing for resources in a specific area, this is the road to great power war. US believes that by taking oil out of the realms of Geo-politics and war and making it an economic issue we are actually contributing to world peace. And in the service of that we find ourselves deeply involved in Middle-Eastern politics," he said.

While there may not been success always, what matters is the effort taken, he said.