Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Saudi Arabian connection: with Western security - and even survival

Journal Article · · Across the Board; (United States)
OSTI ID:5576409

Instability in the Persian Gulf, which supplies eight percent of US energy consumed (32 percent to Western Europe and 53 percent to Japan), is seen as the key to US economic, political, and military survival. Saudi Arabia's potential for large-scale and sustained production increases and its willingness to have a moderating voice in oil-price negotiations have made it crucial to US interests and receptive to policies which have injected Saudi Arabia into international finance. The opportunities for oil supply to be disrupted by domestic instabilities within individual Persian Gulf countries, within the Persian Gulf region as a whole, or from external interference from the Soviet Union are examined. The opportunity for an effective US military defense of the area is not encouraging for a number of strategic and diplomatic reasons. (DCK)

Research Organization:
SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
OSTI ID:
5576409
Journal Information:
Across the Board; (United States), Journal Name: Across the Board; (United States) Vol. 17:2; ISSN ACBOD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English