ABSTRACT
The shale revolution has been heralded as a game changer for US foreign policy. Already, shale is changing global energy dependencies. The chapter discusses the US shale revolution and the way it enables the United States to employ radical new foreign policy measures. It puts US energy security in a historical and geostrategic context and analyses its possible consequences for US leadership in an increasingly multipolar world. The chapter argues that the United States is not likely to become an energy superpower, nor energy independent. But the shale revolution makes the United States less dependent on overseas oil exporting partners, which changes the energy security logic that has limited US foreign policy since the 1970s.
