Political economy of American foreign oil policy and the Middle East: the influence of the multinational oil corporations, 1969-1979

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5394716

Tarzi, S M

The micro-analytic task of this research was to examine whether and to what extent US interests in the Middle East oil, especially American foreign oil policy as it evolved historically, could be explained in terms of the domestic energy needs of the country, the government's desire to maintain access to and/or reduce dependence on unstable foreign supplies, and the need for profit, expansion, and for control of these sources of raw material by major US multinational oil companies. Saudi Arabia and Iran were selected as empirical referents to evaluate the hypotheses of the aforementioned schools in political economy. The evidence provided by the case studies, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are not very decisive for preferring one competing interpretation over another. We can only suggest that the spread of US economic interests in a given Third World nation and/or region should be introduced as an important consideration in any hypothesis attempting to explain US foreign policy. At the micro level, both the liberal interest group theory and the Marxist instrumentalist theory of the state can explain major public policy provisions affecting the oil industry, as well as instances of convergence of government-industry relations. However, both fail to provide an adequate explanation of the instances of divergence of interests between the government and Big Oil.

• OSTI ID: 5394716
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
021000* -- Petroleum-- Legislation & Regulations
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
293000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Policy
Legislation
& Regulation
294002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ENERGY SOURCES
FOREIGN POLICY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MIDDLE EAST
MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES
NORTH AMERICA
PETROLEUM
POLITICAL ASPECTS
USA