Political dynamics of economic sanctions: a case study of Arab oil embargoes
The general question is considered of the effectiveness of economic sanctions in international politics, in terms of the Arabs' use of oil as a political weapon in 1956, 1967, and 1973. Chapter 3 focuses on the impact of the interruption of oil supplies to Western Europe throughout the 1956 Suez crisis. By 1967, pressure on the conservative governing elites of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, and the Gulf Sheikdoms obliged these states to join Iraq and Algeria in imposing production cutbacks and an embargo. Yet the conservative regimes' ties to the West, and the control exerted by multinational oil corporations over all phases of their oil industry, insured that the embargo was not enforced. Chapter 4 explains historically how, by the late 1960s, relinquishment of old concessions, nationalization acts, and participation agreements had caused a decline in the multinationals' domination of the oil industry. The rise of OPEC and OAPEC, which by 1970 had united and organized the producing governments, channeled their demands, and created an international forum for their political grievances, is discussed. Chapter 5 considers how by 1973 international and Arab political developments had forced states like Saudi Arabia, which had sought to dissociate oil and politics, to unsheathe the oil weapon and wave it in the faces of their Western allies. The author concludes from analysis of these complex cases that scholarship has exaggerated the inefficacy of sanctions. The effectiveness of sanctions is seen to depend upon how the demands are formulated and presented and to what extent they can be negotiated, as well as upon the sociopolitical, cultural, and psychological characteristics of the target population.
- OSTI ID:
- 5557549
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
EFFICIENCY
EMBARGOES
GLOBAL ASPECTS
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OAPEC
OIL-EXPORTING COUNTRIES
OPEC
POLITICAL ASPECTS
SANCTIONS