Sunday Times, October 3, 2004

Beneath the Caspian Sea in central Asia lie 'the world's biggest untapped fossil fuel reserves'. The problem isn't just one of access to this reservoir of oil and gas (the nations lining the Caspian, many of them former Soviet regions, can't agree on the proportion of ownership each should have), but of getting these riches to market. Kleveman has produced a convincing and well-researched book, part travelogue, part geopolitical primer, providing a fascinating study not only of an area that is likely soon to become as problematic as the Middle East, but of America's oil-dominated foreign policy.

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