Steve LeVine

Author

The Oil and the Glory:
The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea

March 29, 2008

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The Oil and the Glory tells the heretofore little-heralded story of the long, epic struggle for fortune, glory and power on the Caspian Sea.

It takes the reader behind closed doors to watch the players themselves act out their self-interest in negotiations in the region itself, in Moscow, Paris, London, Caribbean islands, the United States and elsewhere.

The conclusion is both spectacular and tragic, as huge oil is found and fortunes earned, the United States scores one of its sole significant foreign policy triumphs of the last decade, but at the same time two Caspian presidents find themselves as unindicted co-conspirators in U.S. corruption cases, and the region's biggest foreign dealmaker of them all is charged with bribery in New York.

At a time when Moscow has dramatically reappeared as a powerful international player, the book also answers the question: can Russia be trusted?

Steve LeVine was based in Central Asia and the Caucasus for 11 years — starting two weeks after the Soviet collapse through 2003. He ran The Wall Street Journal bureau for the eight-nation region, and before that covered it for The New York Times.

From 1988-1991, LeVine was Newsweek's Pakistan-based correspondent for that country and Afghanistan. Before that, he covered the Philippines for Newsday from 1985-1988. He worked on The Wall Street Journal's oil staff through January 2007.

He is currently writing a new book on Russia that, among other things, will explain its string of high-profile murders.

LeVine is married to Nurilda Nurlybayeva. They have two daughters.

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Steve LeVine
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