👉 Pitch in on Patreon and fuel the future of free-thinking conversations. https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviewsAlso visit our returning sponsor Mike Swanson's Wall Street Window for the best financial and trading newsletter around:https://wallstreetwindow.com/On this edition of Parallax Views, returning guest Charlotte Dennett joins us to discuss the geopolitics of oil, natural gas, pipelines, and the ongoing conflicts across the Middle East.Charlotte Dennett is the author of Follow the Pipelines: Uncovering the Mystery of a Lost Spy and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil. Drawing on her research into the history of Middle Eastern oil politics and the mysterious death of her father, U.S. counterintelligence agent Daniel Dennett, Charlotte argues that energy resources and pipeline routes are essential to understanding conflicts that are often explained primarily through security, terrorism, ideology, or geopolitics.We begin with the war with Iran and Charlotte's argument that the country's enormous oil reserves are an overlooked factor in understanding U.S. policy toward Tehran. We discuss the 1953 CIA-backed overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh following his nationalization of Iran's oil industry, the history of U.S. and British intervention in the Middle East, and the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz.From there, we examine the war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia's interest in alternative oil routes that could bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). Charlotte discusses her argument that the development of new energy and trade corridors is crucial to understanding the strategic importance of Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the eastern Mediterranean.We also discuss the war in Gaza and Charlotte's controversial argument that energy resources and proposed pipeline routes are part of the geopolitical calculations surrounding the destruction and depopulation of Gaza and southern Lebanon. Charlotte lays out her interpretation of the offshore oil and natural-gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean and the potential strategic importance of Haifa as an energy hub.The conversation then turns to October 7, Netanyahu, and Charlotte's argument that Israeli officials may have deliberately allowed the attack to occur or subsequently exploited the attack as a pretext for a much larger campaign in Gaza. We also discuss the historical relationship between oil politics and Israel, including the Iraq-Haifa pipeline and the Balfour Declaration.Charlotte also recounts her decades-long investigation into the death of her father, Daniel Dennett, who was killed in a 1947 plane crash while working on Middle Eastern and African intelligence and oil-related matters. She explains why she believes the crash may have been sabotage and how researching his death led her to what she calls the "Great Game for Oil."Other topics include the Iraq War and 9/11, the trans-Arabian pipeline, Keystone XL, the growing energy demands of AI data centers, Trump and Big Oil, the Israel lobby, the attempted murder of three Palestinian students in Vermont, and Charlotte's concerns about the future of American democracy.This is a wide-ranging conversation about oil, pipelines, intelligence, war, Israel, Iran, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the often-overlooked material interests that Charlotte argues sit behind Middle Eastern geopolitics.Follow Charlotte Dennett's work at her Substack, Who Benefits? Cui Bono?, and check out her book Follow the Pipelines.