GWorks Interviews: Steve Coll

"I wanted to write about oil in an age of limits and change." 

In GWorks Interviews: Steve Coll, Mr Coll discusses his latest book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil & American Power, an exploration of oil's place in the world by looking at ExxonMobil, the largest company headquartered in the United States, and its place in the United States and abroad as it produces a singular resource and epitomizes American political and economic authority.

Mr Coll is Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School. He was  President and CEO of New America Foundation. Twice a Pulitzer Prize winning author—once for explanatory journalism; once for "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan & bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001"—, Mr Coll is the author of eight books on the oil industry; the telecommunications industry; financial regulation; South East Asia; Osama bin Laden; the Central Intelligence Agency; and Afghanistan. He covered foreign affairs for and was Senior Editor and Managing Editor at The Washington Post. He is a Staff Writer for The New Yorker.

Part One: An Age of Limits & Change How to write about a crucial resource, a reticent corporation and what they say about America's place in the world.

Part Two: Chad: A Basic Dilemma ExxonMobil's search for oil in increasingly unstable environments and the challenges this poses to the way ExxonMobil does business.

Part Three: Standard Bearers How ExxonMobil's roots in Standard Oil and the Rockefeller family affect its present and future.

Part Four: Coherence Regulation and the institutional and political counterweights to ExxonMobil.

Part Five: Valdez|Exxon The impact of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the future of energy, energy companies and American power.