In the course of my business career I dealt with many different people, from Japanese engineers to Soviet purchasing agents. Despite all differences I found out that one principle always remains true: the best deals are made when there is the greatest overlap between the parties’ interests.

Every commercial deal involves an issue or a problem to be solved. The best and longest-lasting solutions are those where both parties understand the other’s key interests and genuinely try to maximize them, providing a foundation for mutual understanding and respect. Relationships established on this basis tend to be profitable, productive, and long-lasting.

Business deals are made because there is a need: the buyer needs a product or service the vendor can provide, and the vendor needs the buyer’s money and networking potential. One can play such a situation either on a shared interest basis or as a zero-sum game. In the latter case one party’s gain is the other’s loss. One plays to outwit and take advantage of the other. A zero-sum approach can lead to short-term gains but seldom to a long-term solution.

It is surprising how much of a zero-sum game US politics have become. Both parties seem to cling to diametrically opposed ideologies and to an “us against them” attitude. Each claims to have a monopoly on the national interest and on the only correct way to promote it. In the meantime the country is faced with mounting problems, from the current recession to the long-term issue of entitlements.

Underlying all these issues is the core one of energy, which supports our economy and the culture built around it. This is the primary problem that involves us all, and around which the national interest can be reformulated so as to provide a basis for a cooperative approach.

The physical energy which has powered the country of nearly two centuries has been, for all practical purposes, fossil energy. Fossil fuel reserves are huge but in one area, oil, we are approaching the point where their exploitation can no longer keep up with the growth of demand.  We have no current substitute. We therefore need to develop a long-term, sustainable approach to our energy needs. In the short-term we need to insure our supply is large and secure enough to give us that opportunity.

Working on this issue as a nation rather than as hostile political groups is the way to a viable solution as well as to a rebirth of national unity. As often is the case with emergencies, it will force us to think in terms of common interests rather than competing ideologies.

This book outlines an approach to achieving this consensus and stakes out the beginning of the road to a new economic and political reality.