George Mitchell, left, was determined to extract natural gas from shale rock. People said it was impossible, but he was stubborn. And his company needed new gas to supply Chicago. In 2016, a tanker passes through the expanded Panama Canal carrying the first cargo of U.S. liquefied gas (LNG) to China. Oil and gas exports now loom large in U.S.-China trade battles. Yuhuang Chemical of China made a multi-billion dollar investment in St. James Parish, Louisiana, because of inexpensive natural gas. It also bought the old high school, enabling the parish to build a new one. In 2010, Mark Papa predicted that shale oil would be a North American “game changer”. It turned out to be a global game changer. The Permian basin in West Texas and New Mexico is now world’s second largest producing area, propelling the United States to becoming the world’s largest oil producer in 2018, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Horizontal drilling taps multiple zones containing shale oil. President Donald Trump told India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he looked forward to India’s buying more U.S. LNG. But, he added, he was “trying to get the price up a little.” With gasoline prices high in 2012, Barack Obama flew to pipeline junction at Cushing, Oklahoma, to declare that his administration would “cut through” red tape to “get done” the building of southern segment of Keystone pipeline, which starts in Canada. In 2016 and 2017, protestors tried to block last 1320 feet of 1172-mile Dakota Access pipeline, which was built to move new Bakken oil out of North Dakota, replacing 740 rail cars a day. “The technocrats deceived us,” said Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, left, who restricted new investment in Mexico’s energy and sought to restore the ”sovereignty” of the state oil company Pemex. Brazil’s president Jair Bolansaro, right, supported opening Brazil’s offshore to international investment. Stunned Russian family watches in December, 1991, as president Mikhail Gorbachev announces “death notice” for the Soviet Union. The “Judoist”. Vladimir Putin applies his judo skills not only on judo mat but also on the world stage, taking advantage of openings and weaknesses to restore Russia as a great power. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, center, turn the valve in 2011 to open Nord Stream pipeline, bringing Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany. The European Union called it a “priority energy project”. For many decades debate has raged about how much political power Moscow would gain from Europe’s importing oil and natural gas from Soviet Union and now Russia, as in this article from 1961. June 4, 1961 A specialized barge lays pipe under the Baltic Sea in 2019 for controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is meant to carry additional Russian gas to Germany. U.S. sanctions forced work to stop just short of completion, straining U.S.-German relations. In 1564, Cossack leader Bohdan Khyelnytsky, seeking a new ally in war against Poland, swore allegiance to the tsar of Muscovy—competing narratives of which figure in today’s struggle between Ukraine and Russia. After pro-Russian president of Ukraine fled in face of huge popular protests, “little green men”—Russian paramilitary forces—suddenly appeared in Crimea. Russian annexed Crimea, leading to western sanctions and the beginning of a new cold war. Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky meets Donald Trump in September 2019, two months after a phone call between them triggered impeachment of Trump by House of Representatives and then acquittal by Senate. Volodymyr Zelensky went from playing schoolteacher turned president in Ukrainian television comedy “Servant of the People” to actually becoming Ukrainian president– and having to deal not only with Russia, but also the United States. A titanium flag planted 14,000 feet under the North Pole symbolizes Russia’s claims on the Arctic Ocean, including the ice-filled Northern Sea Route that is essential for shipping Russian LNG to Asia. At the “end of the land” on remote Arctic peninsula, Yamal LNG was developed in the face of great skepticism. Russia will become one of the world’s major exporters of LNG, capable of cutting through the ice eastward to Asia or westward to Europe. Pancake Diplomacy and Russia’s Pivot to the East. Russian president Vladimir Putin explains how to make blinis—Russian pancakes—to Chinese president Xi Jinping, while at the same time Chinese military joined in Russia’s large war games in the Far East. Huge “Power of Siberia” natural gas pipeline carries Russian natural gas to China. A signature project for Putin—here signing the pipe—he called it “a genuinely historical event” for Russia and China. Zheng He, 15th century Chinese admiral known as the “Three-Jeweled Eunuch”, commanded giant “treasure ships” as far as Africa. Expunged from history after his death, he now embodies China’s historical claims to the South China Sea. Britain’s Royal Navy defeats China in First Opium War, 1839-1841, giving Britain control over Hong Kong and initiating what China calls the “century of humiliation”. In 1936, Chinese geographer Bai Meichi drew a map depicting the South China Sea as Chinese waters. “Loving the nation is the top priority in learning geography,” he said. His map, described as “deeply engraved in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people”, is the basis of today’s 9-Dash Line. Shortly after becoming secretary of China’s Communist Party in 2012, Xi Jinping led politburo to national historical museum’s “century of humiliation” exhibit. “Now everybody is discussing the China dream,” he said. Beijing traffic jam. In 2019, 25 million new cars were sold in China, compared to 17 million in the United States. China’s oil consumption has tripled since 2000, and it now imports 75 percent of its oil. China has reclaimed 3200 acres in the South China Sea, turning them into military bases. The runway on Subi Reef, in the Spratly Islands, is almost two miles long. Chinese coast guard vessel, above, turns water canon on Vietnamese ship in 2014 as the “most gentle measure we can take” in dispute over oil and gas rights in South China Sea, after giant Chinese HD-951 drill ship, below, begins drilling in waters claimed by both China and Vietnam. “Containerization” was the best idea that Malcom “Idea-a-Minute” McLean ever had— “the most significant development in shipping since the shift from sail to steam power.” It knitted together the global economy, enabling China to become the “workshop of the world”. Huge container ship in Shanghai’s port. Seven of the ten largest container ports in the world are in China. Chinese president Xi Jinping addresses leaders from 40 countries at a forum for “Belt and Road”, which targets an estimated $1.4 trillion infrastructure and energy investment in dozens of countries. China has “no intention”, said Xi, “to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs”. Khorgas was a crossing point through the mountains on the ancient Silk Road. Today, on the border between China and Kazakhstan, it is the giant “land port” for speeding containers filled with goods from China on to Europe. In Kung Fu Yoga, shown at Silk Road film festival, Chinese and Indian archeologists team up to seek ancient treasure. Indian archeologist says cooperation between the two countries would “be in line with the One Belt, One Road policy.” “So well said,” says Chinese archeologist, as his professor, played by Jackie Chan, looks on. Mark Sykes, left, the “Mad Mullah”, was Britain’s Middle East expert during World War I. He and French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot, right, drew a map for postwar Middle East to follow collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Contentious ever since, the map was the basis for the modern nation-state system of Mideast. ISIS jihadist in a 2014 propaganda video declares, “We’ve broken Sykes-Picot” as bulldozer erases border between Iraq and Syria. U.S. defense secretary said ISIS’ lightning offensive across Iraq in 2014 was “beyond anything we’ve seen.” In 1918, chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, left, traveled into Arabian desert to meet Prince Faisal, right, son of the Sharif of Mecca, to discuss a Jewish “homeland” in Palestine and an Arab “nation”. Faisal was as “handsome as a picture”, said Weizmann. T.E. Lawrence went out to the Middle East in 1910 to work as an archeologist. As a British intelligence officer during World War I, he helped organize the Arab Revolt against their Ottoman rulers. He also became “Lawrence of Arabia”. Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian schoolteacher, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 to rescue Muslims from “exploitation” and “humiliation”. He said, “The answer is Islam.” While in an Egyptian jail, Sayyid Qutb, militant leader of Muslim Brotherhood, wrote Milestones, which advocated “violent holy war” and has influenced generations of jihadists. In July 2014, in the grand mosque of Mosul in Iraq, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a new caliphate with himself as caliph. “You will conquer Rome and own the world,” he declared to his followers. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has a word with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Zarif (Ph.D. from University of Denver) during negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program in 2015. Looking on are U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on left, and, on the right, Ali Akbar Salehi (Ph.D from MIT), head of Iran’s atomic energy agency. General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Quds (“Jerusalem”) Force, international arm of Iran’s revolutionary guards, pulled the strings in Iraq and masterminded the “Axis of Resistance” across the Middle East.